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Bilt 72m ties 

Heredia, Carlos Maraia de, 
Thiet i Pe APS ESSE. 

True spiritualism 


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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
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https://archive.org/details/truespiritualismOOhere 





THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS 


TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


_ BY 
C. M. ve ‘HEREDIA, S.J. 


AUTHOR OF 
** SPIRITISM AND COMMON SENSE ”’ 


Above the wonders of Nature are 
the miracles of God, and above the miracles 
of God are the wonders of His grace. 





P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
Publishers to the Holy Apostolic See 
New York 


Permissu Superiorum 


Hibil Cbstat: 


ARTHUR J. SCANLAN, S.T.D. 
Censor Librorum 


Smprimatur: 
+ PATRICK CARDINAL HAYES, D.D. 
Archiepiscopus Neo-Eborancensis 


Neo-Eboraci, die 9 Aprilis, 1924. 


Copyright, 1924, 
BY P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
Printed in U.S. A. 


TO 
CHRIST OUR LORD 
AND TO THE 
IMMORTAL SOULS 
OF MY 
FATHER AND MOTHER 


THAT ABIDE WITH HIM 


THE AUTHOR 


x A) (" j 
Hen 
Huey Vie 


Tayiwiey 


ate 


AUDI 
we 


AM, 


Ha 
ty p 


I 


up eet : 
J (a ‘ 1) 





PROLOGUE 


A noble Portuguese, after studying French in 
his native land, went to Paris. At home, in spite 
of all his efforts, the French language insistently 
remained more or less of a mystery to him. Ac- 
cordingly, on arriving in France, he expressed 
astonishment amounting almost to indignation 
that he, who was a nobleman, could speak French 
so poorly while even the children of France spoke 
with a natural fluency and ease. 

The impression of non-Catholics when Catho- 
lics speak of matters of faith is similar to that 
of the Portuguese visitor in France. They can- 
not easily understand how we believe and what 
we believe. They are not well acquainted with 
the language of faith. 

This book is written mainly for Catholics and 
has its foundation in faith and the Mind of the 
Church. It may be easily understood by Cath- 


olics. But it 1s probable that those who have not 
Vv 


Vi PROLOGUE 


the faith will understand but little. However, if 
they are in earnest, I hope that even non-Catholics 
will find great consolation in this book. Others 
may, perhaps, indulge in a little quiet, sarcastic 
laughter. But it will be as the laughter of him 
who does not understand the language of another. 

I have called this book “True Spiritualism,” 
in contrast to “Spiritism,’ because we Catholics 
are “spiritualists” in the true sense of the word. 
We believe in God, a Spirit; in the Angels, good 
or bad, that are spirits, too. We are convinced 
that we have a spiritual soul that lives forever, 
even after the death of the body. 

In “Spiritism and Common Sense,” we studied 
the current phenomena of Spiritism, while in the 
present work we aim to explain man’s relations 
with the angels and the souls of the departed 
from the Catholic point of view. 

If Our Lord wills that this book be profitable 
to some, I shall be content. 

C. M. pE Herepzra, S.J. 


CoLLEGE OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, 
New York City, NEw York, 
March 10, 1924 


CONTENTS 


ANALYTICAL INDEX 
PART I 
CHAPTER I 
An Old Truth in a New Light 


Many ignorant of full meaning of the Communion of Saints. 
—Author and friend in discussion amplify and vivify 
catechism definition of this article of faithCareful 
examination of popular craze for spiritism tends to 
increase belief in the real kingdom ofGod... . 


CHAPTER II 
A Great Profit-Sharing Corporation 


Religious propaganda as it might have been.—Historical 
communisms.—An organization with constitution and 
rules, treasury, President, installation-ceremony, 
etc.—Two classes of members.—Benefits and pleasures 
Ofimembershin View tans ssh velhoe icant te ile ; 


CHAPTER III 
The Treasury 


The martyr lifts his brother’s penance.—Saints and 
martyrs, souls in purgatory and the living faithful 
all contribute to a common fund of merits.—Christ 
and His Blessed Mother have been the most generous 
donors.—A dying boy’s intercession for three hard- 
ened sinners.—The common treasury is an exhaustless 
source of strength-supply.—Egoism of the modern 
world.—Interpretations of the Communion of Saints 
by those outside the Church.—A true realization of the 
beauties of the Divine Organization—Necessity of 
outside help.—Confidence of the toreador . . . . 


vu 


PAGE 


8-14 


15-24 


Viil CONTENTS 


CHAPTER IV 


Members’ Privileges 


Efficacy of prayer—Answer to Admiral Albuquerque's 
entreaty.—Faith contrasted with modern skepticism.— 
Ideas of the Church on ‘Eutrapelia.”—Five reasons 
why Catholics should receive the most enjoyment out 
os RRL Sar is impossible when we pray with 
BDU OMA arena aR a Nene NUKE yh 13! 


CHAPTER V 
Election to Membership 


Baptismal ceremony of Philip II of Spain.—Gift of faith 


bestowed in baptism.—Analysis of the baptismal 
service.—Death brings us into the full realization 
of the Divine Organization ‘ 


CHAPTER VI 
Installation-Gift 


What is the greatest good that can be lost in life?— 
Definition of faith—Why put more trust in human 
testimony than in divine?—Source of divine testimony. 
—Natural and supernatural faith—Mortal sins con- 
trasted with sins against faith—The way to ever- 
lasting life-—Story of the two Lawrences, father and 
SOT CUED Tie UNNI TRON ew ne oh OPM MB AINE cy ied Tao Bay em ee 


CHAPTER VII 
The Pledge 


Definition of supernatural faith—-When must we make 
an act of faith?—The ‘‘Dogma of Faith.’’—Revela- 
tions of God—Private revelations, (cf. St. Margaret 
Alacoque and Catherine Emeric).—Attitude of the 
Church on the subject of revelations.—'‘ The tangled 
superstitions of faith.’—The Infinite in nature — 
Incident of the Titanic. ee UM a 


PAGE 


25-30 


31-37 


38-51 


52-60 


CONTENTS 1X 


CHAPTER VIII 


Holdings of Each Member 
PAGE 
The consolation of hope.—Hope defined.—The promises 
of God.—How may we remain in the grace of God?— 
Good works, the supplement of faith——Why is hope 
the most personal of the virtues?—The virtue of 
CHATICY | | renee MEA ere vali gl! nea.) fata OE ee 


CHAPTER IX 
Membership Dues 


Merits are the treasury of the Communion of Saints.— 
How may we add to this treasury?—Eternal and 
temporal punishment defined.—Analogies in every- 
day life—-What are good-works?—In a Mutual 
Benefit Association members give as well as receive.— 
All members are brothers striving for the same end.— 
The fruits of membership.—True story of the god-son 
BE ENAN wy camer Sama Ce HMw T Mell ote Hits ae iii te i tala waka Cbrese 


CHAPTER X 
Share-holders’ Mutual Benefit Association 


“The strength of man and the weakness of God.”—Defi- 
nition of prayer.—Is prayer necessary for salvation?— 
The Apostleship of Prayer.—Itsdefinitionandfunction. 80-84 


CHAPTER XI 
Gilt-edge Stock 


Effect of the recitation of The Litany of the Saints in the 
catacombs.—Effect of celebration of Mass in the 
catacombs.—A better understanding of the signifi- 
cance of the Mass.—Difficulties of hearing Mass in 
Japan of the 16th century and again in the time of 
Elizabeth’s persecutions.—The New and Everlasting 
Sacrifice.—History of sacrifices—Definition of a 
sacrifice.—A better understanding of the Communion 
PIS RATIES i ok AMOR ou MA RNa Ry ret les bun Laee: MAN Hey mag) 


x CONTENTS 


CHAPTER XII 


Re-Installation 


PAGE 

Tale of the beggar and the shell._—lIngratitude of man.— | 
Example set by the Church.How to regain the 
grace of God.—The powerful hands of the priest, 
the “‘Alter Christus.’’-—The sacrament of Penance.— 

Communion.-—The Viaticumy i) (0). di) ER b—04 


CHAPTER XIII 
Final Compensation 


Monsignor Dupanloup’s edification at the death-bed of a 
virtuous young girl—The sacrament of Extreme - 
Unction .—Prayers of the Church for the dying.— 

The Church’s remembrance of the faithful departed . 105~115 


PART II 
CHAPTER I 
Life after Death 
Questions on the mystery of death—‘‘May he rest in 


(? 


peace!"’"—What becomes of the soul?—Hypotheses vs. 

conjecture.—Reason’s analysis of the dae —_ 

Attitude of the CatholicChurch . . «oho FIQ=124 
CHAPTER II 


** So that is Heaven!” 


Where shall we meet our departed?—What is heaven?— 
Misleading descriptions.—‘‘ When I was a child, I spoke 
as a child.’"’-—Story of the god-father’s Christmas gift. 
—How can we deserve heaven?—Purgatory as a 
preparation forheaven iy nae Ate Se aie anes ere 


CHAPTER III 
Helpless Prisoners 


How can we help the souls in purgatory?—Definition of 
an indulgence.—Example of applying an indulgence.— 
Indulgences contrasted with sacrament of Penance. . 133-138 


CONTENTS x1 


CHAPTER IV 


Can the Souls in Purgatory Communicate with Us? 
PAGE 
What does official revelation say of purgatory?—Private 
revelation as a source of information.—The Museum 
of Purgatory in Rome.—Prayer book with the im- 
print of a hand burnt upon it.—Purgatory is a place 
of terrible suffering —What should we do for these 
helpless souls?—Christ performed miracles on earth 
for such as are in purgatory,—Why could he not per- 
form other miracles and allow them to appear to us? 
—How does the Church remember the sufferers?—The 
need of a reminder for these forgotten souls——Many 
false and exaggerated stories of apparitions, but some 
BICUPUC |) Toga rre hie en 1: ee IW etnies aero it ae Gye ROO Oe 


CHAPTER V 
Do the Saints in Heaven Observe Us? 


Apparitions of and communications from saints proved 
by scripture—Reasons why God should allow the 
souls of saints to appear to us.—Scriptural proof that 
saints know of sinners’ repentance.—Our spiritual 
welfare watched by God’s saints.—Attitude of the 
noble mother.—Heaven is like a great home.—lIt is not 

' so much that the saints see us but that they know us.— 
When do they lose sight of us?—Is God deaf to the 
petitions of the saints?—Incident of the eloquent 
sermon as an example of the power of the Communion 
Of Samts,) Tie eee ang ee tn a » « I53-161 


CHAPTER VI 
Apparitions 


Will God allow the souls of saints to appear to us?—TIs a 
miracle necessary for the apparition of a saint?— 
Practice of veneration of the saints.—Attitude of 
Church concerning powers of the saints.—Two classes 
of apparitions.—Account of the ap oaa of St. Philip 
of Jesustohis mother . . Att St Neat Noa. eae elk Oke LOT 


xii CONTENTS 


CHAPTER VII 


The Angels 
PAGE 
Inhabitants of the invisible world.—The guardian angel.— 
Angels as messengers from God.—The angels’ two means 
of communication with man.—The preternatural order. 
—Explanation.—Can the angels communicate with us? 
—Scripture’s answer.—The Church’s attitude con- 
eerning angels.—Devotion to the guardian angel . . 168-175 


CHAPTER VIII 
Devils and the Damned 


Can the souls of the damned appear to us?—Answer 
adduced from scripture-——The liberty of departed 
souls is in proportion to their sanctity——Opinion of 
Catholic writers, St. Thomas, etc.—Can the devil 
communicate with man?—Reply of holy scripture. — 
Cases of possession by the devil.—The Church’s ritual 
of exorcism.—The devil, like the angels, has con- 
natural powers which are preternatural to us.—Need 
God grant the devil special permission to exercise his 
terrorisms? . SR MIC, OMNSENME OD (ig og . 176-183 


CHAPTER IX 
The Divine Providence of God 


Influence of God’s providence in our lives——Why we 
should increase our trust in Him.—‘‘Man proposes, 
God disposes.’’—Presumption.—True concept of the 
providence of God contrasted with Mohammedan 
fatalism.—God’s three methods of governing the 
earth.—Ordinary providence of God contrasted with 
his extraordinary providence.—Miracles.— Chance” 
confused with the workings of divine providence. . 184-194 


EPILOGUE 


God veils the hereafter as well as earth itself in countless 
mysteries.—Man is on this earth and yet above it.— 
Definition of the book’s efforts.—Enumeration of main 
points in the discussion.—Spiritualism contrasted to 
spiritism.—Communion of Saints as a source of cour- 

Ske and Comlor eee vil. eluate Nuelh AM MARDO ne ep aeeanenis 


First Part 
THE DIVINE CORPORATION 


“I believe in . . . the Communion of Saints,’— 
APOSTLES’ CREED. 


Wa APT Mies 


D. 
‘ 


ae ae 





TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


Soe DOr PEE 


I 
AN OLD TRUTH IN A NEW LIGHT 


“DP BELIEVE in the Holy Ghost, the holy Cath- 
olic Church, the Communion of Saints,”— 

A friend of mine once said to me: 

“Ever since I was a little boy I have always 
paused when saying the Creed at the line: ‘the 
Communion of Saints.’ The words were always 
vague, distant and ineffective for me. I could 
not realize their full meaning. To-day, my feeling 
is little different. I know dimly what the Com- 
munion of Saints is, but whether it has any 
strength, any direct influence on life, I have not 
been able to discover.” 

My friend is one of a multitude. His faith is 

3 


4 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


as strong in him as it was in his mother’s heart. 
His religion is a constant inspiration to him. 
When he contrasts it with the fact-blind, science- 
worshiping world of to-day, his faith assumes 
a fairer beauty and a deeper meaning. Not only 
does he aim to understand the truths of his re- 
ligion, but he strives to realize them, to make 
them living influences in his daily life. 

In a series of little fireside chats and winter 
rambles, I endeavored to explain to him the full 
beauty and truth of the Communion of Saints. 
And as J talked, the memories of days long dead 
came trooping back to me, when this divine asso- 
ciation which we call the Communion of Saints 
first made a deep impression upon me. I saw 
the fervor and enthusiasm of my friend grow, 
even as mine had grown, and it gratified me. 
Not that he, any more than I, had made new 
discoveries, but that a stronger realization had 
come upon us. 

The merits of Christ and the martyrs, the pres- 
ence and ministrations of the angels, the suffer- 
ings of the souls in purgatory, the prayers and 


AN OLD TRUTH IN A NEW LIGHT 5 


intercessions of our Blessed Mother and the 
saints, all came with a deeper, closer meaning. 
In fleeting moments we caught glimpses of the 
ecstatic days and nights of St. Augustine, when 
he recorded in his “Meditations” and “Confes- 
sons” those heart-beats that have throbbed 
through the centuries. 

Not, remember, that we were making any dis- 
coveries or arriving at any truths one could not 
find in the nearest catechism. Not, on the other 
hand, that we were indulging in that common 
practice of talking, just to discover what we 
thought. But that as we repeated the words that 
were the common garb of a common thought, the 
thought itself seemed to assume a more vivid 
meaning. 

I can illustrate from my own experience. If 
you had asked me, before I had arrived at the 
true concept, whether I believed in a guardian 
angel, I should have instantly replied, “Yes!” I 
could have recited the prayers to him, could have 
told you of his help and guidance. But it is only 
comparatively recently that I have come to realize 


6 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


he is with me in the noise and crowd of the street- 
car, that he is over my shoulder even now as I 
write. 

Scores of queries started out here and there in 
oir conversations, like so many frightened rab- 
bits, and they gave new impetus to our rambles. 
During the past year, for example, the papers 
were filled with spiritism. Christianity, many 
declared, had failed. The religion of theories, 
superstitions and mad fancies was no more. 
Here was the new religion, the religion of scien- 
tific fact. The departed alone knew the truth of 
the world beyond. And the departed had at 
last spoken. I read reports of Sir Conan Doyle’s 
lectures in the morning papers, and examined the 
contents of his book ‘‘The New Revelation.” And 
then, grateful for a sense of true understanding, 
I turned back to the only truth, the Communion 
of Saints, the real Kingdom of God! 

In those many fireside chats and winter ram- 
bles, I told my friend of the Communion of 
Saints. It was well into the spring when I had 
finished for there were many novel ideas that 


AN OLD TRUTH IN A NEW LIGHT 7 


seemed to leap up as I talked to him of that intri- 
cate, yet simple and divine, organization. And I 
promised myself when the cold winds blew again, 
and there came the scent of burning leaves, I 
would sit down and write as I had spoken, in the 
hope that someone might find a little inspiration 
in my pages, or might see an old truth in a newer 
light. , 


IT 
A GREAT PROFIT-SHARING CORPORATION 


SUPPOSE if some of those numerous sects 
and churches that boast day in and day out 
of their progressiveness and up-to-dateness had 
held to the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, 
they would preach it at every social gathering, 
propagate it in pamphlets, and advertise it in 
newspaper and periodical. 
One can imagine the headline: 
“The Greatest Profit-sharing Corporation in 
the world!” 
And if they were interested in saving souls and 
eager for the heavenly kingdom instead of the 
earthly progress of man, they would shout: 


“Save your soul for nothing! Admission to 
this corporation is free. Members partake of 


the vast resources of the organization and re- 
8 


PROFIT-SHARING CORPORATION 9 


ceive benefits from the richest donors. Come! 

Join! At last we have discovered the one and 

only system of communism in existence.” 

And so on. 

Such advertising would sound very much like 
“pay a nickel and save your soul’ propaganda, 
but nevertheless, in spite of the error of such ad- 
vertising which forgets the innate nobility of 
man and feels impelled to vulgarize every idea 
to bring it to his level, the announcements would 
be very true. 

For the Communion of Saints is no less than 
this—a Divine Corporation, a great communism 
in which all the saints in heaven and all the 
souls in purgatory and all the children of the 
Church on earth form one vast family, of which 
Christ is the head, and participate in all spiritual 
gooas that are in common. 

It is a vast benevolent society, beside which the 
communism attempted in Crete centuries before 
the coming of Christ, the regime of Lycurgus in 
Sparta, the dream of Plato in his “Republic,” are 
petty, inconsequent things. Marx, in his wild- 


10 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


est chapters, never dreamed of a socialistic com- 
monwealth that should include heaven and earth, 
God and His Blessed Mother, the angels and 
saints, and human souls; a commonwealth whose 
care was the eternal things and whose object was 
infinite good. 

Not alone is it the idea of the early Christians 
in Jerusalem, who, as is told in the Acts of the 
Apostles, “had but one heart and soul; neither did 
any one of them say that, of the things which he 
possessed, anything was his own; but all things 
were common to them. And those who had 
houses and lands sold them and laid the price at 
the feet of the Apostles who distributed them to 
every one according to their needs.” But it is the 
idea raised to the heavenly sphere, embracing 
both planes of existence, enveloping the finite 
world and entering into the infinite, the idea that 
makes common property not so much of earthly 
as spiritual goods. 

As far as a comparison is possible, the Com- 
munion of Saints is like the ideal profit-sharing 
corporation. 


PROFIT-SHARING CORPORATION II 


The treasury of such an association would cor- 
respond to the common fund of merits, made up 
of the infinite contribution of Christ on Calvary 
and applied in the daily sacrifice of the Mass, the 
incomparable contribution of the Blessed Mother, 
the donations of the martyrs, saints, and all the 
faithful on this earth and in heaven. For mem- 
bers of the corporation to contribute to the com- 
mon fund, it is necessary that they perform good 
works. For members fully to share in the com- 
mon fund, there is the obligation to observe the 
by-laws of the association. 

Faith initiates us into membership in this 
society. It is a gift given by the President. 
When we receive this gift, we pledge ourselves to 
abide by the constitution and keep the rules of the 
society as well as oppose its enemies. Christ is the 
great President of the society. 

Hope is the confidence that we have that the 
President of the corporation will certainly reward 
us with ultimate success, and give us the means 
to obtain it. 

Charity is the love we bear the President of the 


12 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


corporation because of His indisputable good- 
ness, and the love we bear our companions for 
His sake. 

Grace is the gratuitous help from the Presi- 
dent of the society, given out of His kindliness and 
generosity to enable us to become at first members 
of the society, and afterwards, to help us keep 
the regulations and pay our dues. 

Prayer is the means of soliciting help for our- 
selves and others. It is the method of communi- 
cation between ourselves and the President. 

The faithful are members of this great corpo- 
ration. When they have committed sin they are 
dead members, but still retain their membership 
in the corporation. When in the state of grace, 
they are living members. 

Many benefits accrue because of active mem- 
bership. By being members in good standing the 
faithtul enjoy not only a higher personal prestige, 
but also, a position of influence. The better their 
standing, the easier it is to obtain help from the 
President. According to their work they profit. | 

Of the manifold workings and benefits of this 


PROFIT-SHARING CORPORATION 13 


society I shall write somewhat in detail in the 
following chapters. But I shall not go into the 
labyrinths of discussion, nor seek to make more 
plain the obvious. All that is here expressed may 
be found in the simple answers of the catechism 
or in the more elaborate treatises of theology. 
But the living warmth that catechist and theolo- 
gian must necessarily omit in his argument may 
find a place in these pages. 

The truth of the mightiness and beauty of this 
great organization, of which you and I and all the 
faithful are members, is an inspiration, a consola- 
tion, a source of courage and joy. When, oft- 
times, our body is heavily laden and we seem to 
stagger beneath the burden and grow despondent 
as we think of our lonely fight for the eternal 
prize, we remember that great army of which we 
are soldiers, that great kingdom of which we are 
citizens, and we arise in pride and new strength. 
We are not fighting a lonely fight. As we go to 
battle, angel wings are fluttering unheard above 
us, the prayers of the faithful on earth and in 
heaven are about us like messengers guiding and 


14 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


urging us on, the redundant graces of the 
martyrs are as food for our weakness, the infinite 
merits of Christ like new blood rushing through 
our hearts. 

Oh, when we remember our great companion- 
ship,—and we are prone to forget,—our littleness 
and the trivialities of this world are forgotten! 
We do not shudder at the thought of the Infinite. 
For, are there not the merits of Christ? And it 
is with a familiar voice that we appeal to the 
saints :—Saint Joseph, to teach us to bear the bur- 
den of the long day’s toil; Saint Augustine, to 
teach us to love the truth that it may become for 
us warm and glowing; lowly Saint Francis, to 
teach us Christian joy even on earth and to know 
God’s hidden loveliness everywhere; Saint Pat- 
rick, to teach us courage in exile,—that we call to 
all:the saints, and feel their help around us. And 
always there is the Blessed Mother with the 
ladies of her heavenly court, to take our faltering 
hands and to guide our stumbling feet. 


Ii] 
THE TREASURY 


F you had lived in the days of the martyrs, 
you might have witnessed, as some holy vic- 
tim was being dragged through the streets, a 
Christian dart from a by-way through the exult- 
ing captors to whisper a few words into the ear 
of the one on his way to martyrdom. 

“Brother,” you might have heard him say, a 
little tablet filmed with wax in his hand, “I am a 
sinner. And Holy Church has decreed that as 
penance I stand for seven years outside the 
church, never to enter. Pray, brother, give me 
of your merits, that my penance may be lifted.” 

And the martyr would take the little tablet and 
scratch on the wax: 

“Tf I shall have the happiness to suffer holy 
martyrdom, I give to this man enough of my 
merits to lift his penance.”’ Then on to the arena 

15 


16 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


the martyr would move, or to a cauldron of boil- 
ing oil, or a cross, or block. If he suffered mar- 
tyrdom, the sinner would bring his little tablet to 
the bishop and have*his penance lifted. 

Had you lived in those days that picture would 
have taught you how merits are distributed 
through the Communion of Saints. 

To that great storehouse of merits, the saints 
and martyrs contribute with their superabundant 
works and prayers. And the faithful, too, with 
their prayers and good works, likewise contribute. 
Day after day these merits are being stored and 
distributed by God through His Church. Into 
that reservoir go the merits of our alms-giving. 
Masses for souls in heaven who no longer 
need our prayers, or for souls in hell who are 
beyond our prayers, are not offered in vain; 
the redundant merits are added to the treasury of 
the Communion of Saints. And all the prayers 
and good works of the faithful throughout the 
world, whether they are offered by ourselves for 
others or for ourselves, or whether they are 
offered by others for themselves or for us, in 


THE TREASURY ip 


their abundant merits are continually flowing, 
like a mighty flood, to fill the reservoir. 

But, above all, the great donors to that unceas- 
ing supply were the Saviour and the Blessed 
Virgin. 

Said Clement VI, speaking dogmatically in the 
Bull “Unigenitus”: ‘Upon the altar of the Cross 
Christ shed of His blood not merely a drop, 
though this would have sufficed, by reason of the 
union with the Word, to redeem the whole 
human race, but a copious torrent . . . thereby 
laying up an infinite treasure for mankind. This 
treasure he neither wrapped up in a napkin nor 
hid in a field, but entrusted to Blessed Peter, the 
key-bearer, and his successors, that they might, 
for just and reasonable causes, distribute it to the 
faithful in full or partial remission of the tem- 
poral punishment due to sin.” 

Oh, how would mortal merit the Infinite, were 
it not for the infinite grace supplied by the suffer- 
ings and death of Christ? And to these great 
benefits are admitted all the faithful. Even the 
sinners who are not in the state of grace, and 


\ 


18 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


consequently not living but dead members of the 
Church, can participate. 

We say a prayer for some friend, and the pett- 
tion is granted. But of what avail to move God 
was that trembling prayer of ours? It often suc- 
ceeded because it drew strength from the great 
reservoir of the Communion of Saints. 

I shall never forget an experience I had when 
engaged in parochial work in Southern Califor- 
nia. I had been troubled for many days by my 
fruitless attempts to bring three sinners who had 
fallen away from the Church back to confession 
and grace. They were obdurate. They foiled all 
my efforts, paid no heed to my warnings or plead- 
ings. I prayed long and earnestly, and my 
prayers seemed in vain. 

One night I was thinking of these three, when 
there came a knock at my door. Outside stood an 
old woman on whom poverty, suffering and 
sorrow had left pitiful marks. _ 

“My son is dying, Father,” she wept. 

I followed her to a little hovel on the outskirts 
of the town. 


THE TREASURY 19 


He was only a boy, and a victim of cancer. 

I heard his confession . . . he was almost a 
saint. But it was some time before I could give 
him Holy Communion. 

When at last he was able to receive it, I gave it, 
and he looked up at me with an expression of 
heavenly happiness on his face. Then a thought 
came to me. The poor lad had been suffering 
terribly, so I hesitated for a moment. But he 
seemed so happy, that I said to him: 

“My child, I want you to do something for me. 
You are going to die... .” 

“T know it, Father. But I am not afraid. I 
AUeADDY s\n eMaDp vine ae 

“And when you die, I want you to ask the good 
Father in Heaven that three sinners who are 
avoiding my efforts may come to penance.” 

He agreed and seemed even anxious to die, to 
carry out his mission. 

The next morning one of the sinners came to 
me, penitent. Later in the day, the other two 
came. I was much surprised, particularly since 
their change of heart had been so sudden. 


20 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


Two days later, I met the old mother of the 
sick boy on the street. 

“Father,” she said, approaching me, “will you 
come to my boy’s funeral?” 

“Your boy dead!” I exclaimed, for I did not 
expect his death so soon. ‘‘Why did you not tell 
me?” 

She made some feeble excuse. 

“When did he die?” I asked. 

She told me. It had been early on the morning 
of the day when the three who had fallen away 
from the Church had come to confession. 

The boy’s intercession had brought those three 
souls to penance. 

I went to the funeral. The boy was buried in 
a pauper’s grave, for the poor mother did not 
have money to pay for one. I tried to have the 
arrangements changed, but it was too late. 

It was a rainy day, and I can never forget 
watching the body of that boy lowered into his 
lonely grave... . One could think only of his 
soul in heaven. Indeed, God’s ways are not our — 
ways! 


THE TREASURY : 21 


I have often thought how fortunate it is for 
most of us that there is this great Benevolent 
Association in the Church, and that we have those 
who pray for us. Reflection on the vast treasury 
of merits that are always behind us like a great 
protecting army, would almost breed presump- 
tion, did we not realize, through the teaching of 
Mother Church what a personal and profound 
matter is the saving of one’s soul. 

For him who not only perceives the truth but 
also realizes it, the Communion of Saints is 
indeed a great Association, of which we are mem- 
bers. An American in a foreign land has behind 
him all of America. It is with great pride that 
he rises for the National Anthem. It is with 
deep fervor in his heart that he places on his coat 
the emblem of his country. He is an American! 
. .. Each of us is a citizen in the Communion 
of Saints, a soldier in the Kingdom of God, a 
shareholder in the Divine Corporation. Each of 
us may ride forth, like a crusader, with pen- 
nons flying, meeting the enemy bravely, and 
heroically facing suffering and death, because we 


22 TRUE SPIRITUALISM . 


see how noble is our cause and how great our 
company. 

Those who believe the Communion of Saints 
is but a chimera, a product of academic discus- 
sion, a growth of heterogeneous ideas gathered 
here and there without any truthful foundation, 
not only disregard historical fact and evidence but 
commit the common modern sin of believing 
themselves and the world enormously larger and 
more important than they really are. If one 
were to ask what the outstanding sin of the world 
to-day is—not that the modern world is uni- 
versally more sinful than that of centuries in the 
past—the answer would not be its materialism 
or its selfishness, but its astounding egoism. 
What a mighty earth this is! What a mighty 
people we are! ... And after all it is only a 
little insignificant planet, and barely deserving of 
the name, that whirls unnoticed in space. Should 
yonder wandering comet ever be permitted to 
brush us even gently in passing, in an instant all 
our great works, our railroads, our skyscrapers, 
our canals, and our bridges, power-plants and 


THE TREASURY 23 


laboratories would be but scattered dust drifting 
aimlessly down beneath the farthest star. 

But how natural, how beautiful, is the Com- | 
munion of Saints to him who realizes he is but 
an atom before the smallest star, that his ‘life is 
outlived a thousand times by that star, and yet is 
so great that he can enter heaven and eternal 
life! To him, the Communion of Saints is the 
power of the only thing that matters,—the spirit. 
Earth is but a preparation for the kingdom of 
heaven. 

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and its justice, 
and all other things will be added to you.” 

He clearly sees the necessity of outside help 

. and prayer. 

There comes to my mind a story I heard when 
I was in Spain. 

In a little village lived a famous toreador. One 
day the parish priest came upon the bull-fighter’s 
mother praying in the chapel. Her head was 
bowed and her lips moved incessantly. 

When she saw the priest, she went to him and | 
pleaded: 


24 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


“Father, please pray for my boy. He is to 
fight to-morrow. The bull is one of the fiercest, 
and I fear he will be gored.” 

The priest promised the mother that he would 
remember, and went out and left her in the 
chapel. 

Outside, under a tree, carelessly smoking a 
cigarette, was the famous toreador himself. 

“Why aren’t you in there, praying for your 
life?’ asked the priest. 

The toreador watched the clouds lazily sailing 
by. And then with a puff of his cigarette, 

“Oh, don’t worry, Father, I'll kill the bull.” 

The priest was amazed at the other’s self- 
assurance. 

“Tow do you know that?” he queried, quickly. 

The toreador, with his drowsy eyes still on the 
languid clouds, returned, © 

©The bull hasn’t any mother to pray for him!” 


IV 
MEMBERS PRIVILEGES 


i OTHING is impossible when we Catholics 

pray with faith. . . . We have behind us 
the promise of Christ and the help of all His 
saints.” 

These are the words with which Admiral de 
Albuquerque in his time was wont to console his 
friends. 

And there came a day when the famous sailor, 
the conqueror of India, had the truth of those 
words brought home to him well. 

When he was crossing the Indian Sea at the 
head of the Portuguese navy, a great hurricane 
arose. It leaped upon them suddenly like some 
furious monster and raged over the waters. The 
sea boiled like a cauldron. The sailors prepared 
to die. 

25 


26 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


And then the great admiral, with his firm faith, 
and confidence in the great Communion, took a 
little baby, recently baptized, in his arms, and, 
holding him up towards the awful skies, ex- 
claimed with fervor: 

“My Lord, do not look at us sinners who have 
offended Thee and do not deserve Thy mercy, but 
look at this child who has just entered Thy 
Church through baptism. He is innocent and a 
member of Thy mystical body . . . For his sake, 
O Lord, spare us sinners.” 

And suddenly the wind ceased and the sea was 
quiet. And all knelt down and with grateful 
hearts thanked God for His intervention. 

“A story!” you say. But it is not a story. It 
is a fact. And your experience, if you pause to 
consider, and the experiences of all the faithful 
would make a vast treasure-house of instances of 
divine intervention. It is a rare life among the 
faithful that at sometime does not show a marvel- 
ous example of the working of the grace of God. 
What father, mother, sister, son, brother, daugh- 
ter, priest, nun, cannot, if they would consider, 


MEMBERS’ PRIVILEGES 27 


recall some instance of the fruit of prayer and the 
working of the overflowing graces of the Com- 
munion of Saints? Sometimes it may be seen 
only by looking backward over many years. 
Sometimes it may be seen only in a fleeting min- 
ute, at death. Often it may never be seen, be- 
cause one never looks. But itis there. And if 
some industrious investigator, some laborious 
compiler, who spends a long life gathering fables 
from all the centuries to prove the materialism of 
life, should spend his time collecting instances of 
this overflowing grace, not only among princes 
and kings but among the humble country people 
and the lowly city dweller, what an inspiring 
work that collection would be! 

But the skepticism of the modern world will 
label these manifestations of Divine Providence 
as “stories,” “fiction.” Science adopts the hal- 
lucinations of mediums as a foundation for in- 
vestigation and a stepping-stone to progress. 
But the absolute scientific truth of the existence 
of the miracles of Lourdes it passes by with in- 
difference and an air of incredulity. 


28 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


It has been alleged oftentimes that the Church 
has taught that in this world there is nothing but 
misery, and that she is not for this life but for 
the next. Well do we know how erroneous that 
is! As the soul is greater than the body even in 
this life, so does it follow that the pleasures of 
that soul are greater than the pleasures of the 
body. It is the Church which teaches us how to 
be happiest in this life and happiest in the next. 
The philosophy that reduces the world’s play- 
things to their proper perspective and makes man 
at once great in the accomplishments of earth and 
at the same time divinely indifferent to them, is 
hers. Few who criticize the Church in the matter 
of her philosophy of earthly happiness can be 
familiar with the moral virtue of the enjoyment 
of life,—Eutrapelia,—as St. Thomas puts it. 

If earthly joys were all, the Catholic, with the 
doctrine of the golden mean of moderation, would 
make the most of them. If happiness consisted 
of an ultimate carelessness for death and the 
troubles of the world, the Catholic, with his 
heaven-waiting stoicism, would obtain it in full- 


MEMBERS’ PRIVILEGES 29 


est measure. Ifthe most contented man were the 
man with the greatest number of pleasurable 
ideas, then the Catholic, with the great store- 
house of beautiful thoughts and images that the 
Church has gathered through the centuries, 
would be that man. If the highest joys are the 
mystical joys, the Catholic has a rich ocean of 
mysticism in which he can discover pearls untold. 
If the highest joys are the simple homely joys, the 
Catholic has a reservoir of truths that begin with 
the simple and homely teaching and example of 
Nazareth. No hedonist, no zsthete, however 
rapturous his pagan worship of beauty, can equal 
the Catholic even in pursuit of earthly happiness. 

But immeasurably beyond these sources of joy, 
the Catholic has his firm hope in the everlasting 
happiness of heaven. He has his trust in a God 
who loved man so much that He came to earth 
and died for him. The light of Paradise is in his 
eyes. The beauty of God illuminates his soul. 
The caresses of his Heavenly Father are on him. 
And he has his belief in the power and compan- 
ionship of the Communion of Saints. 


30 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


In the words of the brave old admiral, 

“Nothing is impossible when we Catholics pray 
with faith. . . . We have behind us the promise 
of Christ and the help of all His saints.” 


V 
ELECTION TO MEMBERSHIP 


OME back with me somewhat over four 
hundred years ago. 

The church of Santa Maria la Antigua in 
Spain was hung with rich draperies and bedecked 
with regal magnificence. 

Outside the door, in his robes, stood the fa- 
mous Cardinal Tavera, archbishop of Toledo, the 
most prominent churchman after the Pope. 

Up to the doors of the church came a royal 
procession. In the suite was a lady-in-waiting, 
carrying in her arms a new-born child. 

“What dost thou ask of the Church of God?” 
asked the waiting Cardinal of a prince walking 
by the side of the Imperial child. 

“Faith,” answered the prince. 

“And what doth faith avail thee?” asked the 


Cardinal. 
31 


G2 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


“Life everlasting,” answered the prince. 

“Tf then thou desirest to enter into life, keep 
the commandments.” 

And then, bending over the little child, the 
Cardinal said: 

“Depart from him, unclean spirit, and give 
place unto the Holy Ghost.” 

Making the sign of the Cross over the little 
figure, he continued: 

“Receive the sign of the cross both upon thy 
forehead and also upon thy heart, take unto thee 
the faith of the heavenly precepts, and in thy 
manners be such, that thou mayest now be the 
temple of God.” 

Then placing his hand upon the head of the 
infant, he repeated the beautiful prayer asking 
the Lord “to break all the bonds of Satan where- 
with the infant is tied and to open to him the 
gate of His mercy.” 

And then, after putting a few grains of salt 
on the tongue of the child and praying as he did 
so, the Cardinal in a solemn voice exorcised the 
unclean spirit, commanding it in the name of the 


ELECTION TO MEMBERSHIP 33 


Father, Son and Holy Ghost not to snare the 
Bieter: cab 

“Therefore, accursed devil,” he prayed, “ac- 
knowledge thy sentence, and give honor to the 
living and true God; give honor to Jesus Christ, 
His Son, and to the Holy Ghost; and depart from 
this servant of God, because God, our Lord Jesus 
Christ, hath vouchsafed to call him to His holy 
Grace and benediction, and to the font of bap- 
tism.”’ 

The Cardinal prayed again, and placing the 
stole over the child, said: 

“Enter into the Temple of God that thou may- 
est have part with Christ unto life everlasting.” 

The Imperial suite entered the church. 

After the recitation of the Apostles’ Creed and 
the Our Father, the Cardinal prayed again, exor- 
cising the unclean spirit—commanding him to 
leave the child. 

Then, turning towards the prince who was 
godfather and answered in the name of the child, 
he asked: 

‘Dost thou renounce Satan?” 


34 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


“T do renounce him,” answered the prince. 

“And all his works?” | 

“T do renounce them.” 

“And all his pomps?” 

“T do renounce them.” 

Then the Cardinal anointed the child, saying: 

“T anoint thee with the oil of salvation in Jesus 
Christ Our Lord, that thou mayest have life ever- 
lasting.” 

“Amen,” answered the vast crowd. 

Then with great solemnity the Cardinal asked: 

“Dost thou believe in God, the Father Al- 
mighty, Creator of Heaven and earth rags 

“T believe,” replied the prince. 

“Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ, His Only 
Son, Our Lord, Who was born and suffered for 
us?” 

“T believe.” 

“Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy 
Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints, the 
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, 
and life everlasting?” 

“T do believe.” 

“Wilt thou be baptized?” 


ELECTION TO MEMBERSHIP 35 


“T will.” 

Then the Cardinal, pouring the baptismal 
water over the child’s head, said: 

“Philip. . . . I baptize thee in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” 
_.. And so, Prince Philip, later Philip II of 
Spain, was baptized. 

That day was the day of his admission into 
the Church of God. He received the faith and 
the grace of God. And on that day, he was 
initiated into the Communion of Saints. 

All of us may not have Cardinals to pour the 
baptismal water, or princes to stand as our god- 
fathers. But we are all given the same faith 
just as fully and with just as much rejoicing in 
heaven. And we all, on that day when we are 
received into the faith, are given the gift of 
erace, however humble we may be and however 
lowly our surroundings. In other words, by this 
ceremony we, too, are initiated as members of the 
great Communion of Saints. 

And what great gifts those are—faith, and 
grace! 

Later, I shall speak of them both more fully. 


36 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


But to-night, as I write here in the autumn dusk, 
I can see a little graveyard through the trees with 
its shining white headstones in regular rows. 
To many, in the melancholy of the dying year, 
those silent stones might speak of sorrow and 
fear at the cold immobility of death. But to me 
they bring joy, hope, confidence, for I know that 
the souls of those who sleep beneath the stones 
there are now in the other world, and have en- 
tered into a more complete membership in the 
Communion of Saints. 

We trust that they see now, face to face, the 
Leader of the great Community whose death 
opened the way to Paradise. Perhaps they have 
met those blessed ones whose overflowing merits 
enriched their earthly lives, and whose prayers 
were for them encouragement and strength. 
They have stood, perhaps, in the Divine Splendor, 
recognizing at last those angels who while on 
earth stood by them unseen, who guided them, 
triumphed with them, and gloried in their sacri- 
fices! 

It is the little graveyard out there, scarcely 


ELECTION TO MEMBERSHIP = 37 


distinguishable in the deepening dusk, that brings 
home more fully the joy, the strength and the 
loveliness that is part of that great spiritual 
organization—the Communion of Saints! 


VI 
INSTALLATION-GIFT 


few years ago, in a new book, an author 

had his characters discuss among them- 
selves what was the greatest good that could be 
lost in life. 

One said it was loss of eyesight, because 
it shut one up for life in the opaque darkness of 
a solitary cell. Another, that it was loss of mind, 
for life then for the loser was worse than death. 
Another said it was loss of friendship, because 
that brought a sorrow for which there was no 
consolation, and made a gap in life that could not 
be filled. 

But I have often thought that none of them 
had found the greatest loss in life. For the 


ereatest tragedy of life is the loss of faith. 
38 


INSTALLATION-GIFT 39 


In baptism, we are questioned: 

“What dost thou ask of the Church of God?” 

“Faith” is the answer. 

“And what doth faith avail thee?” is asked. 

“Life everlasting.” 

And with the loss of faith comes the greatest 
loss—beside which all others are as nothing—the 
loss of God and of everlasting life. It is faith 
that makes us members of the Church, of the 
mystical body of Christ, and partakers of the 
resources of the Communion of Saints. Faith 
alone will not secure salvation. But without faith 
one cannot be saved. 

“He that believeth and is baptized, shall be 
saved; but he that believeth not shall be con- 
demned.” (Mark, xvi, 16.) 

Faith is the believing what God has revealed 
because God has revealed it. It is not an over- 
flowing of fervor, or a rush of emotions directed 
toward the Divine or simply a trust in God or 
confidence in His goodness. As the catechism 
says, “Faith is a virtue infused by God into our 
souls, by which we believe without doubting, all 


40 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


those things which God has revealed and pro- 
poses by His Church for our belief.” 

Faith is not some amazing gymnastic feat of 
the combined faculties of the human soul. Nor 
is it a mighty act of sheer will. It is, in the 
words of Pope Pius X: ... “not a blind re- 
ligious feeling, issuing forth from the secret 
places of subconsciousness ... but a genuine 
assent of intellect to truth received outwardly 
through hearing; by which assent we believe 
those things to be true that God, a personal Be- 
ing, our Creator and Lord, has spoken, borne 
witness to, and revealed, and all because of the 
authority of God, who is supremely truthful.” 

Your ultra-modernist will stand aghast in 
open-mouth amazement at a Catholic’s profes- 
sion of faith. And yet his whole life is bound 
in a network of assents of his ordinary human 
intelligence, held together by his credence in hu- 
man testimony. 

Why should he be so dumbfounded at credence 
in divine testimony? Almost all of his knowl- 
edge is based on human testimony. His own 


INSTALLATION-GIFT AI 


immediate experience, must, because of his in- 
significance, be so limited that through that ex- 
perience he can know but little. He knows of 
the existence of New York or San Francisco 
because, we will assume, he has been there. But 
in the existence of the land of Thibet, the stream 
called the River Nile, the Behring Straits, or 
the city of Calcutta, and the nature of these 
places, he believes purely on human testimony. 
And those are simply questions of geography. 

The acceptance of ordinary human testimony is 
the foundation stone of all of our history. If 
each of us believed only those incidents of the 
Great War which we ourselves saw and took a 
part in, how little would be our store of knowl- 
edge of the war. Even the soldier who fought 
at St. Mihiel must learn by testimony what was 
going on at the Somme. The historians them- 
selves must rely for their records on documentary 
testimony of men. All past history is compiled 
on the same basis. 

In your home, you take the testimony of 
your family for countless things. In science, 


42 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


you constantly take the testimony of text books 
and scientists. You put your faith in your 
physician, in your lawyer. Recount the facts in 
your personal experience and you will discover 
that ninety-nine per cent of them are based on 
human testimony. You take the testimony of news- 
papers, of magazines. The score of yesterday’s 
baseball game in another city you learn from the 
word of one who was there. 

Your ultra-modernist is, himself, an out-and- 
out believer in human testimony, else his life 
would be a bedlam of insane doubts, endless in- 
consequent questionings and annihilating disbe- 
liefs. Human testimony is a.source of true 
knowledge. What is essential is that the one 
giving testimony be truthful and knows what he 
is talking about. Under these conditions, to deny 
the truth is to ruin all moral certitude. And 
knowledge through the testimony of another is, 
however you may put it, however you may quibble 
over it, simply and obviously “knowledge by 
faith.” 

Now, what does the Catholic do when he be- 


INSTALLATION-GIFT 43 


lieves what God has revealed because God has 
revealed it? In human faith he believes a wise 
and honest man. In divine faith be believes Him 
who is infinitely wise and infinitely truthful. He 
cannot go to Calcutta, so he takes the testimony 
of a wise and honest man in Calcutta who tells 
him of the journey there, the route, the joys and 
hardships of the journey; who tells him of the 
city itself, its beauties, its laws and government. 
So, while on this earth he cannot go to heaven, 
yet he believes the testimony of an infinitely wise 
and infinitely honest God. 

But has God given this testimony to man? 

This testimony is contained in the Sacred 
Scriptures and Tradition. Therein is the word 
of God. 

But how does he know that these revelations 
are the word of God? 

Suppose he chances upon a document alleged 
to date from the twelfth century. It is interest- 
ing to him, but he, of himself, cannot tell whether 
or not itis genuine. What is the sane and logical 
thing to do? Go to an expert, a man familiar 


44 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


with the intrinsic evidence of such documents. 
Or suppose he found a painting in his garret. 
He has a suspicion that it is a work by Whistler, 
let us say. What does he do? He goes to some 
man who is a connoisseur, to some expert who 
was intimate with Whistler and familiar with his 
work. The expert tells him that it is a genuine 
painting by the artist, a bona fide document. And 
he believes. 

Similarly, he wants to know about the word 
of God. “I wonder if this is so or not?” he asks 
himself. “Is some of it true, or none of it?” 
“Ts some of it fictitious, or all of it?” What does 
he do? He goes to that expert body whose care 
it has been from the first hour of its existence 
to receive, verify and guard the things of God. 
That body tells him that God has revealed Him- 
self to man, and this and that, and no other, is 
the word of God. And now his doubt is cleared. 
He does not, in the face of the testimony of the 
Church, whose particular province is for that 
very object, cast aside all of Revelation, nor re- 
ject some of it and accept other parts of it, nor 


INSTALLATION-GIFT 45 


endeavor to interpret it according to his own 
whim, fancy or vacillating mood, or to suit a 
changing need. The Church takes the burden 
that is entirely too big for his strength off 
his shoulders. He says gratefully, “Let the 
Church take care of that; it is her business, not 
mine.” 

And that is why in the catechism it is af- 
firmed that we believe those things which God 
has revealed and proposes by His Church for 
our belief. What to believe is the care of God’s 
appointed Church. To believe is the obligation 
of a Christian. | 

The scientific method of the Catholic in this 
matter of faith is in strange antithesis to the 
unscientific methods of the modern materialistic 
evolutionist who builds so largely on supposition. 
Yet no one laughs at the man who bases his 
belief on evidence which is missing, whose whole 
system of thought is based on a gap that divides. 

In human faith, man need only know that the 
witness knows what he is talking about, and that 
he is truthful. But in the matter of divine faith, 


46 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


there is need of more. To believe anything that 
God has revealed, because He has revealed it, is 
an act of supernatural faith. And for mortal to 
make a supernatural act requires the help of 
God. The supernatural, by definition, is beyond 
the powers of nature, and, accordingly, impossible 
for us to attain by our own natural powers alone. 

It is as if, after endeavoring vainly to see the 
rings of Saturn with the naked eye, some good 
friend put into our hands a powerful telescope 
and by its aid suddenly the rings of Saturn were 
made clear. So, we, who are unable through 
natural powers alone to perform a supernatural 
act, are given in baptism the virtue or habit of 
faith, in conjunction with hope and charity; and 
in addition, the grace of God, the “supernatural 
gift by which we become children of God and 
heirs to His glory.” It is this faith received 
in baptism that initiates us into the membership 
of the Communion of Saints, and it is this grace 
that enables us to be shareholders in the common 
stock of spiritual goods. 

Remember, this virtue of faith is a gift of 


INSTALLATION-GIFT 47 


God. He wants us to become members of the 
mystical body of Christ, and He knows that by 
our own powers alone we cannot enter. Re- 
member, also, that when in baptism we become 
children of God and members of the Communion 
of Saints we renounce Satan and all his works 
and pomps; just as an alien in America, for 
example, who seeks citizenship, must renounce 
his allegiance to any other land. 

When I notice Catholics attending meetings of 
those who make a religion of Oriental magic and 
diabolical superstitions, I wonder if they have 
forgotten the King to whom they offered their 
allegiance in baptism! 

Faith is a priceless treasure. ‘“‘Without faith 
it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. xi: 6.) 
The Church realizes this. And she realizes how 
easy it is for a person to lose his faith. Too 
often has she seen the carelessly sown seed of 
doubt spring into a poisoned flower. Too often 
has she seen apparently small errors in belief 
blaze into great conflagrations that reduce to 
smoke and ashes the once-noble edifice of the 


48 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


faith of thousands. She knows the faithful are 
forever skirting a precipice, and that Satan is 
ever there, a lion lurking for its prey. And that 
is why she is so rigid on matters of faith. When 
it comes to the priceless possession, that God- 
given gift of faith, she stands firm and unyield- 
ing. There is no wile that can win her, no re- 
ward that can shake her, no force that can sway 
her, from her determined path. She knows that 
in matters of faith there can be no bartering. 
It is “lose all” or “gain all.” Her children, at 
times, when Satan is whispering sweet words in 
their ears, are angry with her. But the day will 
come when they will be grateful for her noble 
stand. She acts, then, like a human mother; she 
is a jealous mother and will fight to the end. 
For one to lose the shining virtues of faith or 
hope, it is necessary for him to commit a sin 
expressly against these God-given gifts. He 
may commit a mortal sin, but keep the habits of 
faith and hope. Then, although he is a dead 
member of the Church, he is still a participator 
in some of the benefits of the Communion. But 


INSTALLATION-GIFT 49 


when a person commits a sin against faith, he 
ceases, there and then, to be a true member of 
the Communion of Saints. A sinner against the 
commandments has always some chance of as- 
sistance by the prayers, or good works, or super- 
abundant merits of some other member of the 
Communion. But when a person commits a 
mortal sin against faith, he is no longer a par- 
ticipant in the common spiritual goods. God may 
have mercy on him and give him back his faith. 
But there is no obligation. Faith is a gift, and 
if that gift is not twice-given, such a soul is lost 
forever. 

To remain a member of the Communion of 
Saints and keep the title to everlasting life, one 
must hold firmly to his faith. But faith alone 
will not suffice; it requires faith with the keeping 
of the commandments, faith kept alive by charity, 
prayer, good works, and the sacraments. 

Once, when I was in Rome, a friend of mine 
from boyhood came to visit me. He had with 
him his little son. The name of the boy and his 
father was Lawrence. Late one afternoon we 


50 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


went together to the Church of St. Lawrence to 
pray. 

Before the relic of the great martyr, the father 
bade his son kneel down to pray. And he himself 
knelt down beside him, as I thought, also in 
prayer. 

That night, at the hotel, we were chatting to- 
gether, and I remarked how happy I was to have 
seen him so fervently at prayer. 

His face suddenly became very serious, and 
without a word he led me out onto a balcony 
where no one could hear what we said. He 
stopped, and turned slowly to me: 

“Father,” he said, “I have lost my faith.” 

I looked at him in amazement, and he went on: 

“I am very unhappy. I believe in nothing. I 
want to believe but I cannot. That is why I want 
my boy never to lose his faith. It is terrible, 
Father. I act as a Catholic when J am with him, 
because I would rather die than let him know. 
For never would I want him to be as unhappy as 
Iam... I want to believe, and I cannot... .” 
And then he told me his sorrow. And I thought 


INSTALLATION-GIFT 51 


how true were the words of a great Catholic 
writer: 
“If faith were not the first of the Christian 


virtues, it would always be the greatest of con- 
solations. It is both.” 


Vil 
THE PLEDGE 


A CHRISTIAN, to make an act of divine 
faith, needs the supernatural habit of faith, 
and, for the object of that act, a matter revealed 
by God Himself. Just as to play a sonata of 
Beethoven, one needs the habit acquired through 
years of practice, and the master’s music. If we 
have not the supernatural help, we cannot make 
the supernatural act; and, even if we have the 
habit, and have not a truth revealed by God, we 
cannot make a supernatural act of faith. 

I cannot, for example, make an act of super- 
natural faith in the existence of Thibet. I may 
have the habit of faith, but it is not God Who 
has revealed the existence of Thibet. 

Sometimes it is difficult to know just what in 
particular has been revealed by God. In these 
cases we turn to the Church for assistance. 

§2 


THE PLEDGE 53 


Certainly all that is contained in Scripture and 
Tradition (and so, proposed by the Church) is 
revealed by God. But it is the Church who can 
tell us what we must believe by making an act 
of faith and what we must not believe. 

There are many things about which we are not 
obliged to make an explicit act of faith. For 
instance, it is revealed by God in the Book of 
Genesis that Adam had two sons, Cain and Abel. 
If I wish, I may make an act of supernatural 
faith, saying, “I believe that Adam had two sons, 
Cain and Abel, because God has revealed it.” If 
I have the habit or virtue of faith, this will be an 
act of supernatural faith. But, as is very obvi- 
ous, there is no need of making such an act. I 
may, or I may not, as I wish. 

But if I declared, “I do not believe that Adam 
had two sons, Cain and Abel,” such a declaration 
would be an act against faith. God has revealed 
that Adam had two sons, and this is as true as 
that Christ is God. The testimony of God is the 
same, no matter what it bears witness to. And 
so, we are obliged to believe all that God has re- 


54. TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


vealed, but we are not obliged to make a special 
act of faith in regard to every item and in support 
of every detail. We are obliged only not to 
disbelieve, for such disbelief would be equivalent 
to a denial of the veracity of God. 

The Church tells us just what things we must 
believe, and just what truths on which we are 
obliged to make an act of faith. To some of these 
truths we give the name “dogma of faith.” For, 
to be saved, it is not enough for a grown person 
merely to have the virtue or habit of faith. It is 
absolutely necessary that he, or she, exercise it. 
Some of the dogma we have to believe explicitly, 
for they are absolutely necessary for salvation. 
On others we have to make an act of faith be- 
cause the Church commands us to do so. These 
dogma are contained in the Apostles’ Creed. 
Those matters that are not revealed by God, and 
not contained in the holy scriptures or treasured 
by tradition, we cannot believe by supernatural 
faith. 

Then what about the revelations of the 
saints? 


THE PLEDGE 55 


The answer is very simple. 

However well authenticated a private revela- 
tion may be, we cannot make an act of super- 
natural faith on it. And the reason is simple— 
God has not made that revelation to us. 

But can we believe in private revelations? 

We can, by an act of natural faith, just as we 
believe in the existence of Calcutta. The proofs 
must be so reasonable as to afford no objection. 

Here, again, enters the Church with her ma- 
ternal solicitude. 

To her Christ entrusted the divine treasure of 
revelation. She realizes full well the seriousness 
and sanctity of her trust. And accordingly, she 
is extremely careful in what she tells her children 
to believe or not to believe. She is infallible when 
she declares that a certain truth is contained in 
the treasures of revelation. And from God she 
has a special mission and special graces to enable 
her to direct her children. When the Church, 
after a long and careful investigation gives her 
approbation to the revelations of some of the 
saints, it does not mean that such revelations are 


56 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


infallibly true, and that we must believe them as 
coming from God, but simply that on the grounds 
of human testimony, they can be believed in a 
plous way. Such, for instance, are the revela- 
tions of St. Margaret Alacoque. 

Some revelations are tolerated by the Church. 
She neither approves nor condemns. In them she 
finds nothing that is dangerous to the faith or 
morals of her children, and she leaves it to the 
common sense and ordinary judgment of the 
faithful whether or not they wish to believe. 
Such are the revelations of Catherine Emeric. 

There are, however, other revelations disap- 
proved, and others condemned by the Church, be- 
cause in them is found something that is danger- 
ous to faith or morals, or otherwise injurious. 

So solicitous is the Church for her children that 
she will not permit even the transcendent holiness 
of one of those children to move her to a decision 
that might, as time goes on, be a cause for mis- 
understanding, and afford a ground for doubt. 
She knows how incomparably precious is the gift 
of faith. \ 


SO ee ee —=- w=" 


THE PLEDGE 57 


And, sometimes, when I meet a youth whose 
tiny brain has been crammed with petty facts 
and to whom the joy of true wisdom is unknown, 
and hear him rant in his egotism that he has 
risen above the tangled superstitions of faith, 
(How they do like those phrases! As if in their 
bitterness and injustice they found some opiate 
for a secret unrest!) I feel like crying out, “You 
do not know what you have lost. And, alas! un- 
less God’s mercy descend upon your soul again, 
you never in this life will know.’ There’s the 
pity of it. Those, oftentimes, who have wilfully 
lost their faith speak as if they had freed them- 
selves from shackles, when, in reality, they have 
estranged themselves from God who is everlast- 
ing happiness, and have cut themselves off from 
the greatest earthly source of strength and in- 
spiration. I think if someone had only told them 
of the greatness and beauty of the gift they 
possessed, they might have avoided the careless- 
ness that lost it to them forever. 

When I hear them expatiating upon their 
superstitious beliefs in their own greatness, in 


58 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


science, in material progress, I can think only how 
small the earth is and how little are they to be im- 
prisoned by its barriers. Never do they seem to 
greet the Infinite, in the multitudinous expres- 
sions of faith, in the beautiful solitude and com- 
munion of prayer, in the glorious prospect of the 
magnificent sunset sky, in the loveliness of 
flowers, throbs of music, or the silent grandeur of 
the midnight stars. They seem so petty, so futile, 
so vain. And I have thought that those nearest 
to Truth are the very simple and the very pro- 
found. There is the mighty Augustine with that 
colossal mind of his and that great heart, pouring 
his soul out in the humble fervor of his medita- 
tions. And there is the gigantic St. Thomas of 
Aquinas, austere, almost invincible, bowing down 
in simple humility to write the ‘““Tantum Ergo.” 
And there are thousands of humble peasants and 
dwellers in the city praying, working, believing,— 
countless unknown, uncanonized saints of the 
great Communion. 

Shortly after the ill-fated Titanic was sunk, 
this little story came to my ears: 


THE PLEDGE 59 


Among those of the crew that lost their lives 
was a boy. Some weeks after the disaster, the 
captain of a great trans-Atlantic liner at dock in 
New York City received a visit from a poor old 
woman. Approaching the captain, with tears she 
said: 

“Captain, my dear child is buried in the ocean, 
and his grave has no cross upon it. I have come 
to ask you to put this crucifix on his resting 
place.” 

The captain looked into her pleading eyes 
with pity. He thought to himself that she 
must be mad. She read his glance, and, tak- 
ing a small metal cross from her bosom, she con- 
tinued: 

“No, captain, my grief has not made me mad. 
What I ask of you is reasonable. Are you not 
going to cross the ocean soon? And on your trip 
are you not going near the route taken by the 
Titanic?” 

The captain replied that was true. 

“Then, this is all I ask. When your ship goes 
by the spot, take this little crucifix and drop it 


60 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


into the waters, and the Guardian Angel of my 
child will take care of it.” 

There were tears in the eyes of the sturdy cap- 
tain as he took the little cross from the mother. 
He promised her he would do what she asked. 

And who is there that can deny but what, as 
that tiny emblem of God’s love for man fell into 
the waters and drifted deeper and deeper into the 
darkening depths, there came the flash of angel 
wings as a hand caught the falling cross and laid 
it lovingly on a boy’s body that swayed to and 
fro in the subterranean darkness? 


VIII 
HOLDINGS OF EACH MEMBER 


ULL and dark is the life of the man who has 
no aspirations. 

There are no sudden glimpses of a fair reward 
to hasten his lagging steps, no sweet distant 
music to comfort his despondency, no flash of a 
friendly star to bring him renewed confidence and 
strength. 

Jean Paul Richter tells how disheartening 
would be the dark blue vault of heaven were it 
not dotted with the tiny lanterns of the stars. 
Man would shrink beneath that unbroken dark- 
ness and crouch as if he were carrying its vast 
gloom like a heavy burden on his back. It is 
heaven’s distant lights that draw man’s soul, like 
magnets, that lift it up and lighten his heavy 


burden. He feels as if at times he were treading 
61 


62 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


the trembling air and already taking “the kindred 
kisses of the stars.” 

Life without hope would be the dark expanse 
of the heavens without the stars. 

Hope! Poets have written winged lyrics to its 
comforting inspiration. Artists have visualized 
and sought to materialize its beauty on canvas. 
Orators have endeavored to confine its grandeur in 
thoughts that march to resounding sentences, vi- 
brant with a martial music, compelling with a 
manly strength. Beside the intimate experience 
of Hope’s beauty, strength, and inspiration, the 
fairest accomplishments of man are vain and 
feeble. It is the solitary soul that has Hope’s 
comfort—that alone may know Hope’s infinite 
grandeur. | 

Faith is “the beginning of human salvation.” 

Hope keeps us moving towards the goal. 

God is as good as His word. He promised 
Abraham He would multiply his descendants like 
the stars of heaven. And He fulfilled His 
promise. He promised Moses He would help him 
in delivering his people, “For I will stretch forth 


HOLDINGS OF EACH MEMBER 63 


my hand and will strike Egypt with all my won- 
ders which I will do in the midst of them... .” 
(Ex. ili, 20.) And it was done. When a soul 
enters His Church, He promises that soul life 
everlasting. And He will fulfill His word. All 
He asks is\that we, too, keep our promises. To 
reveal to us His desire that we dwell in heaven 
with Him, He bestows on us in baptism the super- 
natural virtue of hope. 


“Tope is a supernatural virtue divinely in- 
fused into our souls, by which with certain con- 
fidence we expect the eternal happiness and the 
means conducive thereto, through the assist- 
ance of God.” 


God is infinitely truthful and infinitely wise. 
He also is infinitely powerful and infinitely faith- 
ful. He has promised to make us happy forever, 
and He alone has the power to fulfill this promise. 
We are certain He will fulfill His promises be- 
cause He is infinitely faithful. 

The truth and wisdom of God are the founda- 
tion of faith. The power and fidelity of God are 


64 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


the foundation of hope. As we cannot make a 
supernatural act of faith without the help of God, 
so we cannot make a supernatural act of hope 
without this same divine assistance. 

Faith is not enough for eternal life. 

Without good works our faith is vain. For 
salvation, we must keep the commandments; but 
we cannot keep the commandments permanently 
without the grace of God. We know that God is 
constantly furnishing us with this grace. He does 
so with divine generosity, in the sacraments. And 
we know that we are not alone in the fight to gain 
heaven. As members of the Communion of 
Saints, we have the prayers of innumerable good 
souls. We have the intercession of the saints in 
heaven who are watching us. We can partake 
of the infinite merits of Christ that overflow daily 
in the sacrifice of the Mass. This help and en- 
couragement are like sun and rain to the flower of 
our hope. Day by day it will grow, if we con- 
stantly keep in mind how God is fulfilling His 
promise of giving to us the means to eternal 
life. 


HOLDINGS OF EACH MEMBER = 65 


The beautiful prayer of Fr. de la Colombiere, 
S.J., comes to my mind as I write: 


My God, I believe most firmly that Thou 
watchest over all who hope in Thee, and that 
we can want for nothing when we rely upon 
Thee in all things; therefore I am resolved for 
the future to have no anxieties, and to cast all 
my cares upon Thee. “Jn peace in the self- 
same I will sleep and I will rest; for Thou, O 
Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.” 

Men may deprive me of my worldly goods 
and of honors; sickness may take from me my 
strength and the means of serving Thee; I may 
even lose Thy grace by sin; but my trust shall 
never leave me. I will preserve it to the last 
moment of my life, and the powers of hell shall 
seek in vain to wrest it from me. “Jn peace in 
the self-same I will sleep and I will rest.” 

Let others seek happiness in their wealth, in 
their talents: let them trust to the purity of 
their lives, the severity of their mortifications, 
to the number of their good works, the fervor 
of their prayers; as for me, O my God, in my 
very confidence lies all my hope. “For Thou, 
O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.” 


66 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


This confidence can never be vain. “No one 
has hoped in the Lord and has been con- 
founded.” 

I am assured, therefore, of my eternal happi- 
ness, for I firmly hope for it, and all my hope 
is in Thee. “In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; 
let me never be confounded.” 

I know, alas! I know but too well that Iam 
frail and changeable; I know the power of 
temptation against the strongest virtue. I have 
seen stars fall from heaven, and pillars of the 
firmament totter; but these things alarm me 
not. While I hope in Thee I am sheltered from 
all misfortune, and I am sure that my trust 
shall endure, for I rely upon Thee to sustain 
this unfailing hope. 

Finally, I know that my confidence cannot 
exceed Thy bounty, and that I never shall re- 
ceive less than I have hoped for from Thee. 
Therefore I hope that Thou wilt sustain me 
against my evil inclinations; that Thou wilt 
protect me against the most furious assaults of 
the evil one, and that Thou wilt cause my weak- 
ness to triumph over my most powerful 
enemies. I hope that Thou wilt never cease to 
love me, and that I shall love Thee unceasingly. 


HOLDINGS OF EACH MEMBER — 67 


“In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never 
be confounded.” 


Hope, alone, seems a self-regarding virtue, for 
it has its foundation in the love of our own happi- 
ness. We know that God has promised life ever- 
lasting and all the means to obtain it. So, we look 
towards life everlasting, and if we keep the com- 
mandments it is because we realize that this is the 
way to heaven. 

When, in the state of grace we perform some 
good work, aside from the merit of that good 
work which is for ourselves alone, there is an- 
other value, satisfactory and impetrative, which, 
if we wish, we may transfer to others for their 
benefit. Now, if mortals possessed hope alone, 
the inclination would be to be parsimonious and 
store up all our merits for ourselves. And ac- 
cordingly, with hope alone, the Communion of 
Saints would seem a somewhat imperfect society. 

But hope is not alone. We have charity, the 
greatest of all the theological virtues, a super- 
natural habit by which we love God above all 


68 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


things and our neighbor for God’s sake. It is 
through charity that we dread sin, not only be- 
cause it means the loss of heaven and the pun- 
ishments of hell, but because it offends God who 
is all good and worthy of all love. It is with 
charity that we incline to help our neighbors as 
we help ourselves. Hence it is charity that is the 
heart of the Communion of Saints. Hope and 
faith will pass with the passing of this earthly 
life, but charity will burn as incense before God 
forever. 


IX 
MEMBERSHIP DUES 


AITH initiates us into the membership of the 
Communion of Saints. 

Hope is the common trust of the members of 
the Communion of Saints that God will not only 
give them eternal life but also the means to ob- 
tain it. 

Charity is the common love of the members for 
one another and for God Himself. 

Grace makes us living members of the Com- 
munion of Saints. 

Prayer is the way of communication between 
the members of the Communion. 

Merits form the treasury of the Communion of 
Saints. 

The Infinite Contributor to the treasury has 
been our Saviour, on Calvary, and in the daily 
sacrifice of the Mass. Then, there are the incom- 

69 


70 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


parable merits of the Blessed Virgin, and the 
superabundant satisfactions of all the martyrs 
and saints, and of all the faithful, living and dead. 
When one in the state of grace performs a good 
work it results in his obtaining certain merits. 
Of these merits, a part acts as a personal reward, 
increasing the sanctifying grace in one’s own soul 
and storing up greater glory for the individual 
in heaven. A second part goes to give him a 
place of greater influence in the eyes of God, adds 
more power to his prayers, and, hence, affords 
him a greater possibility of obtaining the object 
of his prayers. And a third part, satisfactory 
rather than meritorious, serves to pay for the 
temporal punishment due to his sins, and, if he 
wishes, for the temporal punishment due to the 
sins of others. He may, as some of the faithful 
do, wish to have none of this go to obliterate the 
temporal punishment due to his sins but that all 
shall go for the benefit of others. Or he may de- 
sire that what is sufficient to atone for his own 
sins shall go to that end, and all, over and above, 
may help to compensate for the sins of others. 


MEMBERSHIP DUES ane 


When one commits a mortal sin, there are two 
effects,—an eternal punishment and a temporal 
punishment. The eternal punishment may be 
eradicated only by God’s grace. The temporal 
punishment may be remitted through the con- 
verted sinner’s own works or through the satis- 
factions of other members of the Communion of 
Saints which are donated to the common fund in 
the spirit of charity. 

It is as if a man were fined fifty dollars. 
Through some good work he obtains five hundred 
dollars, we will say. By this good work he adds 
to his own personal prestige,—people admire him. 
And in the performance of the deed he himself 
becomes a stronger and a better man. Secondly, 
through his act he becomes more respected in the 
community. He has proved himself a worthy 
man. He makes many friends and gains the 
favor of his associates. And, thirdly, through 
his act he has acquired sufficient money to pay off 
his fine. He pays the fine of fifty dollars, and if 
he so wishes, he may use the remaining four hun- 
dred and fifty dollars in paying the fines of his 


72 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


friends who are in a similar predicament. Of 
course he may not be so charitably inclined. 

We find many analogies in life. For instance, 
take the case of an actor who makes a great suc- 
cess of his work. He acquires by his acting, first 
of all, a wide personal reputation. And perhaps 
his own nature becomes fuller and more perfect 
by the practice of his art. Secondly, he gains a 
multitude of friends and admirers. Through 
them his influence is greater, and hence he is in 
a position to exercise that influence. And, 
thirdly, he receives a salary and accumulates a 
large amount of money. Now, he cannot bestow 
on another his reputation and the perfection of 
his art, for that is personal. But he can use his 
influence to assist relatives and friends. Like- 
wise, he can employ the money he accumulates to 
pay his own debts or the debts of others, accord- 
ing to his inclination. 

So it is with the good works of the faithful in 
the state of grace. 

These good works are of many kinds; such as 
prayer, almsgiving, self-denial, or participation 
in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. 


MEMBERSHIP DUES 73 


It is well never to forget that we are members 
of the Communion of Saints. We may not be 
saints, in the ecclesiastical conception of the 
word, but we are all in the Communion of Saints. 
Weare all called to be saints. (Cf. I Thess. iv:7.) 
We have been sanctified by baptismal grace. 
And many of the members of our great com- 
munity have already arrived at a great sanctity. 
It is well, every day, to dedicate our works, our 
sacrifices and our prayers, alone or in a group, or 
at the sacrifice of the Mass, not only to ourselves 
but also to the great treasury of our society, that 
they may be awarded to fellow-members who, like 
us, are struggling on this earth or suffering in 
purgatory. For we, too, are participators in the 
merits which others have bestowed on us. 

It is a glorious and inspiring thought, that of 
our kinship and our common treasure. We may 
receive of its benefits, and we may give. 

Indeed what a treasure-house it is, holding the 
riches of so many deeds, from the sacrifice of a 
God who died on the cross, to so lowly an act as 
the giving of a glass of water in His name! 

And what a companionship! The thousands of 


74 TRUE SPIRITUALISM ~ 

good sisters and nurses, ministering to the sick 
and dying in the hospitals; the thousands of 
teachers, men and women, preaching the doctrine 
of Christ everywhere, to all races and peoples, 
civilized and uncivilized; the bands of brave mis- 
sionaries; those suffering Christians who bear 
with patience the burden of their misfortunes; 
the companionship of the faithful everywhere | 
and in all times, of to-day and the past twenty 
centuries; the legions of martyrs, the army of 
confessors, the multitude of saints, “the great 
multitude, which no man could number, of all 
nations and tribes and peoples and tongues” 
(Apoc. vii: 9) that are in heaven. All of the 
living who daily offer their merits are our 
brothers and sisters. And the great treasure is 
available for us, as members of the militant and 
suffering Church, because of God’s Infinite 
wisdom and mercy and love. 

Here is a communism that makes us all chil- 
dren of God, and grants us the joy of giving as 
well as that of receiving; and all for no small ma- 
terial success or happiness, but for life everlast- 
ing together, at the feet of our Father. 


MEMBERSHIP DUES 75 


The fruits of the Communion of Saints are 
manifold. But many of those fruits are now hid- 
den from us. We offer up prayer for some object, 
but the prayer does not appear to be granted. 
And yet, the power of that prayer may be work- 
ing for a better end, and we never know. We 
give alms ina small way, with scarcely a thought, 
and lo, that alms may help in the salvation of a 
soul. Even in cases where it would seem that a 
sinner has died without repentance and the grace 
of God, it may often be that through the help of 
the Communion of Saints he repented at the last 
moment, unknown to those who stood at his bed- 
side waiting for the last heart-beat. God alone 
knows the truth of many death-beds. 

Out of the Great War came many stories, but 
there is one I remember above all others. 

It is the true story of Ernest Psichari, the 
grandson and also the godson of Renan, the 
famous skeptic who toiled to uproot belief in the 
divinity of Christ, and whose writings were 
nourishment to the swiftly-growing weeds of 
skepticism. For years Renan’s “Life of Christ” 
was the text-book of unbelievers and opponents 


76 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


of Christianity. The circumstances of Renan’s 
life are peculiar in that he was an ecclesiastical 
student who left the seminary before receiving 
Holy Orders to become a rank and militant 
infidel. 

Ernest Psichari was educated outside the 
Church, as his father was not a Catholic. His 
boyhood ambition was to be a great soldier, for 
he loved the army. When he grew to manhood 
he joined the army and finally, as an officer, was 
sent to Africa. 

There is something of reflected grandeur and 
magnificence in nature’s mighty panoramas that 
catise man’s thoughts to turn to God’s mightiness 
and man’s littleness. Alone, there in the great 
silent desert, the mind of the ambitious young 
officer turned to pondering on the great religious 
truths. He would wander out into the engulfing 
silence and beauty of the desert nights, and there, 
by himself, he would attempt to solve the ques- 
tions of God and eternity and his personal rela- 
tion to both. His thoughts turned towards the © 
teachings of the Catholic Church, and finally God 


MEMBERSHIP DUES Vs 


gave him grace, and the boy was converted to 
Catholicism. 

He was fervent and practical in his faith and 
wrote several books that made a great impression 
on his fellow-officers. There was one in particular 
that created much discussion, “The Journey of 
the Centurion,” in which he told the story of his 
conversion. 

One of the greatest preoccupations of his life 
became the salvation of his grandfather Renan, 
whom he loved deeply. 

He was talking one day to a Dominican Father 
about the question that then absorbed his heart— 
the salvation of his dead grandfather. And he 
asked the priest if God, who knows all and to 
whom there is no past and no future, would 
accept a sacrifice for the soul of his dead grand- 
father. The priest told him yes. 

The answer moved the heart of the young 
officer deeply. From that moment his whole life 
was taken up with the possibility of his offering 
a sacrifice to God, in the present, that might move 
Him to give his grandfather, who had apparently 


78 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


died outside the fold in the past, the grace of sal- 
vation." 

And he pondered what would be the greatest 
sacrifice. Finally, he made up his mind that the 
greatest sacrifice he could make would be to re- 
nounce the world and the army he loved so well 
and put aside all his ambitions and dreams for the 
future, that he might become a Religious. This 
sacrifice should be for the salvation of Renan’s 
soul. He was about to do it. 


1The Revue Apologetique (Tome XXXVII, No. 422, 1 
Decembre, 1923), prints an interesting note on “La Fin de 
Renan.” The Revue bases its remarks on a work published 
last year at Paris under the title “Renan d’apres les Documents 
Inedits.”. The author, M. Jean Pommier, was enabled to make 
use of certain manuscripts in the “Fonds Renan,” at the 
National Library, and of other papers procured for him by 
Mme. Noemi Renan. 

On the 29th of September, 1892, Ernest Renan entered upon 
his last agony. We quote from the “Journal de Mme. Cornelie 
Renan,” used by M. Pommier. “Ces dernieres heures furent 
remplies d’une longue et incessant plainte. . . . Ayez pitie de 
moi, mon Dieu, ayez pitie de moi, j’ai pitie de moi-méme, 
disait-il d’une voix forte.” (These last hours were filled with 
a long and constant complaint. “Have compassion on me, O God, 
have compassion on me, I pity myself,” he said in a loud voice). 
It seems, then, that this arch-infidel in his last hour turned and 
appealed to the mercy of God. Let us hope that his dying 
prayer was not in vain! 


MEMBERSHIP DUES 79 


And then the war broke out. He went as a 
captain of artillery with the French army in the 
retreat before the Marne. There he was killed. 

Did God accept the grandson’s sacrifice? 

We do not know. That is one of the mysteries 
of the Communion of Saints. But we do know 
that God is our Father. 


Xx 


SHARE-HOLDERS MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION 


‘““TJRAYER,” says St. Augustine, “is the 
strength of man and the weakness of God.” 

In spite of his power to amass wealth and fame, 
man has no strength to compare with prayer. 
He can do things innumerable and great. But the 
tiniest of imperceptible bacilli, millions of which 
can be contained in one drop of water, is sufficient 
to engender death. 

And what can man do in the face of the mighty 
hostile powers of the universe? He cannot even 
control misfortune. When evil falls upon the 
most powerful man on earth he can but bend be- 
neath the weight of misery. The poor man who 
can pray may smile in the face of adversity. His 
prayer is the weakness of God. He, before whom 
all power trembles, cannot resist the power of 


prayer. 
80 


MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION 81 


Prayer has its roots in human nature itself. 
From the hour of birth to the hour of death, man 
depends on help. He early learns to ask. Every- 
body knows how to pray because everybody has 
learned to solicit assistance and favors. 

When the Apostles asked our Lord to teach 
them how to pray, He taught them the “Our 
Father,” which is a lesson in asking. It has seven | 
petitions, in which are included our temporal as 
well as spiritual needs. But prayer is not simply 
the seeking of favors. It is an elevation and 
application of our souls and hearts to God, to 
offer Him homage, to expose our necessities and 
ask for help. When we offer Him homage, we 
offer Him our adoration, gratitude, love, praise, 
and acknowledge our dependence upon Him. Ac- 
cordingly, in prayer we worship. It is the very 
definition of prayer that “we elevate our souls to 
God to ask favors of Him.” 

Often did our Lord recommend prayer to His 
Apostles. And in various ways he showed them 
the efficacy of prayer. ‘Ask and you shall re- 
ceive,” He told them. A man who prays with 


82 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


true faith will obtain his request. But oftentimes 
faith is not strong enough. Sometimes he forgets 
to pray when he should pray. Sometimes he does 
not pray in the proper way. At other times the 
grace he seeks is so great that only a very power- 
ful prayer could obtain it. Often, he needs the 
help of the prayers of others. And it is his mem- 
bership in the Communion of Saints that entitles 
him to this help. 

Prayer is necessary for salvation. But many 
forget to pray. Many do not pray at all. Many 
do all in their power to be damned. They have 
faith, and consequently, they belong to the Com- 
munion of Saints, but they are dead members. 
Yet, how many souls there are praying for those 
who do not pray! If we could discern the prayers 
of the faithful rising like columns of frankin- 
cense, as St. John describes the prayers of the 
saints, the earth seen from a distance would re- 
semble a huge Pittsburgh. How many are pray- 
ing at their daily work, in their homes, in chapels, 
in sanctuaries, monasteries, in the numerous in- 
stitutions of the Catholic Church; are offering 


MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION 83 


hourly, daily, all forms of good works and sacri- 
fices for sinners, for the sick, the dying, those in 
spiritual need or temporal tribulation; or for the 
innumerable intentions of other members of the 
Communion of Saints in this world and in 
purgatory! 

It is the Apostleship of Prayer that combines 
the good works and prayers of this multitude of 
the faithful for particular objects. It has been 
called the “Apostleship of Prayer” because it 
seeks the same ends as the Apostles—the promo- 
tion of God’s glory and the salvation of souls— 
using the same means employed by them, prayer 
and good works offered in union with Christ, our 
Lord, and with the sentiments of His Divine 
Heart. 

The Apostleship of Prayer is a communion 
within the Communion of Saints, made up of the 
faithful everywhere. With Christ as their Head, 
the members pray and work together for the 
benefit of souls. Great is the power of these 
thirty millions of good Catholics striving together 
for the same intention. The good works of each 


84 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


solitary soul are combined with the holy sacri- 
fice of the Mass throughout the world, and both 
are united for the intentions of Christ Himself 
and the special object of the Apostleship. 

Thus we see the Apostleship of Prayer as a 
great union, large and powerful, and yet it is but 
a small part of the Communion of Saints. 


XI 
GILT-EDGE STOCK | 


OME years ago I went to say Mass at the 
catacombs of St. Calixtus in Rome. 

It was a morning of extraordinary beauty in 
the Roman Campagna, with the sunlight stream- 
ing out of the Italian sky like liquid gold, and the 
clear morning air heavy with the perfume of wild 
violets. There was a quiet, a holiness in the sur- 
roundings, that filled me with a strange peace as 
I descended to say my first Mass in that spot con- 
secrated by the prayers and lamentations of the 
persecuted Christians and by the bodies of thou- 
sands of martyrs. 

A few days before, I had been in the cata- 
combs of St. Domitilla when hundreds of the 
faithful with lighted candles in their hands, the 
women with veiled heads, had formed a proces- 

85 


86 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


sion after the fashion of the first Christians. To- 
gether with them, I had gone through the dark 
galleries singing the Litany of the Saints. There 
was an appeal in that chant, there in the dark 
lonely sanctuaries of the holy dead, that went 
to the depths of the heart. 

“Holy Mary, pray for us,” chanted the priests. 
And “Holy Mary, pray for us,” answered the 
procession. 

“Holy Michael, pray for us,” would rise the 
voice of the priests. ‘Holy Michael, pray for 
us,” would repeat the throng. 

“All ye Saints of God, pray for us,” the priest- 
voices would drift back over the long line, andina 
moment the response, “All ye Saints of God!”... 
And the words would echo and re-echo farther 
and farther down the hollow silent corridors ; 
echo and re-echo, “All ye Saints of God!” ... 
Then, far off, a faint reverberation, “All ye Saints 
of God!” . . . until the deep silence and the dark- 
ness would engulf the last words. 

There, the early Christians in the days of the 
persecutions, carrying on their shoulders the 


GILT-EDGE STOCK 87 


bodies of their martyrs for burial in the sand of 
the dark walls, had sung the same words. And 
centuries later, the sound of their chant again in 
that consecrated spot had brought to me the truth 
of the Communion of Saints in all its beauty. 

But when on that lovely morning, I had de- 
scended to say Mass at the altar of St. Cecelia, 
my patron saint, when I had said the prayers of 
the Mass that day for the living and the dead, 
when I had consecrated the Bread and Wine and 
offered the Victim to God the Father as an “Alter 
Christus,’—another Christ,—then more than 
ever did there come to me the realization not only 
of the beauty but of the infinite power of the 
Communion of Saints. 

For years I had been saying Mass with the 
utmost devotion, with all the faith that my mother 
had instilled into my heart, but it seemed that it 
was not until that day in the catacombs that I 
realized the full meaning of the holy sacrifice,— 
its awful but joyful significance. 

In Japan in the sixteenth century, the faithful 
tramped hundreds of miles, crossing swollen 


88 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


streams, climbing mountains, laboring over 
rugged paths, to attend the Mass of a missionary. 
In the days of Elizabeth’s persecutions, priests, 
hunted like murderers, disguised themselves as 
peddlers or beggars, fled across the countrysides 
to lonely huts to say Mass to no music but the 
sobs of their persecuted flock. All through the 
centuries are recorded countless instances where 
the faithful and their shepherds braved torture 
and death to assist at the holy sacrifice of the 
Mass. In spite of the persecutors’ threats to 
kill, through suffering, privations, through the 
slaughter of war, famine and pestilence, the 
sacrifice went on. What is that something that 
has held so strongly the hearts of men and 
women for almost two thousand years, that 
something so powerful, so compelling? It is more 
than an august ritual, a solemn ceremony. It is 
a repetition of the Sacrifice on Golgotha. It is 
again the Victim of the Cross. 

Adam and Eve, out of Paradise, felt imme- 
diately the necessity of appeasing God whom 
- they had offended. He was Master of life and 


GILT-EDGE STOCK 89 


death, and in His just anger, He had told them 
they would die. So, we see their children offer- 
ing God “sacrifice.” The same, as we read in the 
scriptures, did Noah on the still wet slopes of 
Mt. Ararat, and the Lord was pleased with his 
sacrifice, and promised not to punish the world 
again with a deluge. | 

The patriarchs, too, offered their sacrifice to 
God. And to offer sacrifice to Jehovah, a whole 
order of priests was created in the ancient law,— 
the Levites. In the sacrifices of Israel, the 
priests sometimes offered bloody victims to God, 
—lambs and goats and calves were killed. Wine 
and milk were poured on the altar to show that 
they recognized the Supreme Master of the 
world, in whose hands are life and death. 

Not all the sacrifices of the ancient law re- 
quired the death of the victim. There was the 
famous annual goat-sacrifice for the sins of the 
people. While all present were making a con- 
fession of their sins, the priests would hold their 
hands over the goat, to signify that, symbolically, - 
all the sins of the people were transferred to the 


cere) TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


victim. The goat was not killed, but cast out into 
the wilderness and so rendered as useless as if 
it were dead. We read in the bible how some 
of the sacrifices pleased God. But even the high 
priest, when offering up a sacrifice for the 
people, had first to offer a sacrifice for his own. 
sins. 

When Christ came, all those sacrifices were 
abolished. A new sacrifice was offered when the 
Son of God died on a cross “to bear the sins of 
Many. Gain Preb..ix's 28) 

On Calvary, our Lord was both High Priest 
and Victim. 

There is a remarkable painting of Christ Cru-. 
cified . . . above Him bend the angels, and at 
the foot of His cross is a priest offering the 
sacrifice of the Mass. Into his chalice flows 
Christ’s precious blood, and overflowing, streams 
down to the lowest part of the earth. And there 
the souls in purgatory are sharing in the sacri- 
fice of redemption. It is an expressive visualiza- 
tion of the truth of the Communion of Saints. 

Christ offered Himself on the cross but once. 


GILT-EDGE STOCK 91 


The same sacrifice is repeated daily in the Mass. 
Although it is not bloody, it is the same,—the 
Victim is the same,—Christ. The High Priest 
is the same,—Christ. And He is still the High 
Priest though the sacrifice is offered through the 
ministry of the priests. 

“A sacrifice is an offering made to God, by a 
legitimate priest, of a sensible thing, that in some 
way is rendered useless, in honor of God as Su- 
preme Master of life and death.” Sometimes 
the victim is rendered useless by killing it. Some- 
times, as in the libations of wine and milk, by 
pouring over the altar. Again, as in the case 
of the goat, the casting it out into the wilderness 
renders it useless. 

After the words of consecration in the Mass, 
under the species of bread is the Body, under 
the species of wine is the Blood. The Body and 
Blood, only mystically separated, are offered to 
God the Father through the ministry of the 
priests. Yet, the true High Priest is the One 
in whose name and through whose power the 
transubstantiation is wrought, the One who on 


92 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


the night of His passion offered this sacrifice 
for the first time to His Eternal Father, the One 
who commanded His disciples, the ministers in 
the new priesthood, to offer up in His name His 
sacrifice to His Father until the consummation 
of the world. 

The Divine Word made flesh assumed a hu- 
man body like our own. This body, through a 
miracle of divine omnipotence, under the cover 
of the species of bread and wine, is, after the 
consecration, without extension or resistance. 
Yet it does not cease to be a true corporeal sub- 
stance. 

According to physical laws, the organs of the 
body, deprived of local extension and resistance, 
are unable to perform their natural functions. 
Under the sacramental species Christ is as if 
He were dead. And all for love of us. 

The thought even of such a complete sacrifice 
is overwhelming. It frightens the human imag- 
ination. It is too tremendous for the greatest 
of human hearts. Only a God could have given 
such an awful proof of His love. 


GILT-EDGE STOCK 93 


But Christ did not stop there. He knew in 
His divine wisdom the need of man for spiritual 
nourishment. He saw that long ages after, when 
Golgotha had become a name for historians, man 
would crave for more than the memory of Him; 
and that man’s soul, weary of abstractions, and 
weighed down beneath the cares and worries of 
the material world, would long for some particu- 
lar, concrete assistance and consolation. And 
so, Christ offered His Body and Blood as food 
for the millions to come. 

When one walks out in a night of silent beauty 
and sees the huddled shadows and pale lights of 
the landscape before him, and looks above, at the 
stars spread out there in splendor, he feels de- 
spair at the thought of the insignificance of his 
own warm, beating heart. And the thought of 
God, vaster than the night, more beautiful than 
the stars, might stagger him, did he not know 
that that God had left Himself in countless little 
tabernacles, in order that man might find there 
comfort and strength. 

This is the consummation of what St. John 


94 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


saw in the Apocalypse, when he tells of “a 
Lamb standing as if it were slain” and ready to 
serve as “food” for all who desired. As in the 
ancient law, the Levites, after the sacrifice, dis- 
tributed among those present the half-burnt 
limbs of the sacrificed lamb, so, in the new law, 
the priest after the holy sacrifice distributes the 
immolated Victim, Christ, saying: “Behold the 
Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the 
world,” and then, “May the Body of Our Lord 
Jesus Christ preserve thy soul unto life ever- 
lasting.” 

When I said Mass for the first time in the 
catacombs my heart was full of these thoughts, 
and I said to myself that it was no wonder that 
the martyrs, realizing the immense love of Christ 
who not only died for them, but also remained 
as Victim in the Sacrament of Love, went so 
willingly to die for Him who cared so much for 
them. That atmosphere impregnated with the 
faith of the martyrs, and those walls that re- 
echoed the prayers of so many confessors and 
virgins were an inspiration for me. I seemed 


GILT-EDGE STOCK 95 


to find a more mystical sweetness in each of the 
wonderful prayers of the Mass, especially those 
of the Canon that are offered for the Church and 
the Pope, in commemoration of the living and 
for those present, and those who have gone be- 
fore us in the sign of faith and sleep the sleep 
of peace. 

At the end of my Mass, I seemed to have seen 
the mystery of the Communion of Saints in a 
new and more radiant light. 


XII 
RE-INSTALLATION 


HE story is told of a beggar, who, seeking 
alms, went from door to door in the village, 
but asked in vain. And then he betook himself 
to the desert. All day long he wandered up and 
down the low sand hills waiting for some rich 
traveler or caravan that might take pity on his 
wretchedness. But again, his quest was in vain. 
Then at sunset, as he was returning to the 
. village, he saw suddenly, in the low level light, 
a man riding along on a stately white camel. He 
hurried across the sands and as he drew near 
the traveler, he perceived, from the insignia on 
the harness and the rich trappings, that the rider, 
although he was alone, was a prince. 

Tie approached the prince and begged for alms. 
His expectations were great, and he awaited the 
prince’s reply with trepidation. 

96 


RE-INSTALLATION 97 


“Dear beggar,” said the prince, stopping his 
camel, “it is I who must beg from you. Will 
you give me a shell full of water, for | am very 
thirsty ?” 

The beggar was disappointed. So he took 
from his shells the very smallest and filled it 
with water. 

The prince took the beggar’s small offering 
and rode away. Regretting the loss of the tiny 
shell he had given, the beggar stood motionless 
and watched the white camel and its rider dis- 
appear over the low desert stretches into the 
town. 

But that night when he returned to his hut 
at the outskirts of the village, he saw something 
glittering in a basket on the floor. He bent down 
eagerly and lifted up the gleaming object. It was 
the tiny shell he had given the prince, and it 
was filled with sands of gold. Then, indeed, did 
the beggar grieve that he had not given to the 
prince the largest of his shells. 

Christ oftentimes is like the prince of the 
story. Many thousands go to the sacrifice of 


98 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


the Mass, to that fountain “springing into ever- 
lasting life’ (John iv: 14). The Saviour is 
there, ready to give all of His merits, but He 
gives only in proportion to the vessel that is of- 
fered to Him. Thus does Christ reward with 
the golden sands of His grace. And the heart 
that is offered in full to Christ is filled by Him 
to overflowing. | 

Ingratitude freezes generosity as an Arctic 
wind chills summer waters. Thousands daily 
receive abundant favors from God through the 
merits and intercession of Christ in the holy 
sacrifice. But few who receive those favors re- 
member to thank our Lord. Ten lepers were 
restored to health by the Saviour, but only one 
returned to thank Him, and that one a stranger. 
Does one wonder that Christ who loved us 
almost incredibly much was sensitive in the mat- 
ter of gratitude? Did He not ask the grateful 
leper who returned: “Were there not ten made 
clean? And where are the other nine?” (Luke 
rentable haya 

The best way to receive in the future is to be 


RE-INSTALLATION 99 


grateful for favors in the past. The Church 
knows this and is constantly thanking God for 
His benefits, especially for having given us 
Christ in the Redemption. “It is truly meet and 
just, right and availing unto salvation,” she says 
in the preface of the Mass, “that we should in 
all times and in all places give thanks to Thee, 
Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Eternal God; 
through’ Christe@ur lords 71% 

Grace it is—to repeat a little—that makes us 
living members of the Communion of Saints. 
This grace is a gift from God. It is generally 
called “Christ’s grace’ because it was merited 
for us by Christ. Now, God has promised to 
give us eternal life and the means to obtain it. 
God is as good as His word. When a Christian 
commits a mortal sin and is no longer eligible 
for the eternal prize, He offers the sinner a way 
to regain his good-standing. That way is the 
beautiful Sacrament of Penance. Christ, in His 
great mercy, has taken pity on our own unworthi- 
ness, and has given to His disciples the power of 
forgive sins. 


100 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


A priest, a friend of mine, once told me of a 
little experience he had had. On one occasion 
when visiting, he was stricken with a sudden ill- 
ness and brought toa public hospital. Nobody 
recognized him asa priest. The first night while 
in a high fever he became semi-delirious. In 
his restlessness he wanted to leave his bed. A 
powerful hospital attendant was set to watch 
him. 

During the early morning hours the priest 
managed to carry out his wish. He was making 
his way towards the door when suddenly the at- 
tendant, who had been dozing, awoke, seized him 
roughly, and, with no attempt at gentleness, 
threw him back upon the bed. 

The priest had not been altogether unconscious 
of what had happened, and resented this burly 
man’s treatment of him. Next afternoon, when 
the attendant returned to duty, the priest called 
him to his bedside. 

“Give me your hand,” he commanded. 

The other thought him mad, but, to humor 
him, he gave him his hand,—an immense, rugged 
fist with a grip like steel. 


RE-INSTALLATION IOI 


“Now,” said the priest, taking the powerful 
hand of the attendant in his own thin, emaciated 
fingers, “which of those two hands do you think 
mightier?” 

The man smiled at the question. But the priest 
repeated it very clearly and plainly, to show that 
he was not insane. 

“Do you want to compare my hand with 
yours?” finally asked the attendant. “Do you 
really want to find out which hand is stronger? 
Watch.” 

He took up a small log of wood lying nearby 
and broke it between his hands as if it had been 
a mere twig. He smiled triumphantly. 

“Can you do that?” 

“No,” said the priest. “I cannot do that. But 
are your hands consecrated? Can you forgive 
sins?” | 

The attendant looked at him strangely for half 
aminute. He was a Catholic, and suddenly light 
broke upon him. 

“Father!” he exclaimed, “you are a priest!” 

And he threw himself on his knees, like the 
big simple fellow that he was. “Forgive me, I 


102 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


had no idea that you were a priest this morning. 
Forgive me.” 

The priest blessed him as he knelt there. His 
hands were the more powerful—the thin, weak 
hands of a priest who could forgive sins. 

The priest isALTER CHRISTUS—another Christ 
—and when he gives the sinner absolution he 
says: “TI absolve thee in the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,” because 
Christ has said to him: “Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive they are for- 
given.” (John xx: 23.) 

It is by the grace of Christ in the sacrament 
of penance and the ministry of the priest that 
the sinner is restored to living membership in the 
Communion of Saints. The eternal punishment 
is forgiven, but not the temporal punishment, un- 
less suitable penance is done or the merits of 
some other of the faithful are given to pay the 
debt. So it is that the priest, after giving a 
penance that must be performed, adds: “The 
passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of 
the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the Saints, 


RE-INSTALLATION 103 


and any good work that you may do or any suf- 
fering that you may sustain, be unto you for the 
remission of your sins, the augmentation of 
grace, and the ultimate reward of eternal life.” 
In these words one can discover a very lucid 
explanation of the workings of the Communion 
of Saints. 

Christ, after He has brought the sinner back 
to the full privileges of the Communion through 
the ministry of His priests, is eager for the sin- 
ner to increase his merits more and more. He 
wishes him to remain a living member always. 
In our natural life we need food for the nourish- 
ment of the body; likewise, for our supernatural 
life, we require sustenance for the soul. This 
sustenance Christ offers, in His own Body and 
Blood. ‘For My flesh is meat indeed and My 
blood is drink indeed.” (John vi: 56.) With 
the aid of this celestial food that produces by 
its own virtue a special grace, similar in effect 
in our souls to food in its effect upon our bodies, 
we grow stronger to journey on to eternal life. 

“May the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ pre- 


104. TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


serve thy soul unto life everlasting,” says the 
priest in administering Holy Communion. And, 
when on our death-bed, we are preparing for 
the last stage of the journey, Christ comes to 
serve as our Viaticum, to guard us from the 
malignant enemy and bring us into eternal life. 


XIII 
FINAL COMPENSATION 


HERE are very few of us who need no aid 
in the faltering, final hour of death. 

Monsignor Dupanloup, a famous French 
bishop, was once cailed to the death-bed of a 
young woman whom, years before, he had pre- 
pared for her first Holy Communion. The father 
of the girl met him as he entered the house. 

“She is so young,” he whispered to the prelate, 
“that we dare not tell her she is dying. Your 
Grace who knows her so well had better break 
the terrible news to her.” 

The bishop at once went to the sick room. 
To his astonishment, the dying girl greeted him 
with a smile. The bishop became ill at ease and 
could not speak. 


“Your Grace,” said the girl, noting his un- 
105 


106 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


easiness, “do not fear to give me the news you 
have. Am I going to die?” 

The bishop, embarrassed, could not find words 
to reply. 

The girl continued, still smiling: 

“If that is all, Monsignor, do not think that 
Iam afraid. Rather, Iam happy. Were it not 
for those I leave behind, I would have no grief 
atally, 

She paused a moment and then turned to the 
prelate and asked him: 

“You remember that you prepared me for my 
First Communion? And do you remember that, 
after renewing the promises of baptism, you told 
us to keep those promises faithfully if we wished 
to go to heaven?” 

The bishop, not knowing what the question 
was leading up to, nodded in silence. 

“Then, do you not remember that when you 
spoke of love for our Blessed Mother, you told 
us not to forget to say, every night, three ‘Hail 
Marys’ in her honor, and when we came to the 
words: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for 


FINAL COMPENSATION 107 


us sinners now and at the hour of our death’— 
to lift our eyes to her in heaven and ask her 
for a happy death?” 

The bishop again assented. 

“Then, do you believe,” the girl went on, “that 
after these many years of asking her for that 
grace night after night with all my heart, she is 
going to refuse to bring me to heaven and show 
me the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus? No, 
Monsignor, I have not the slightest doubt or fear. 
I have believed in her help all my life and I am 
confident that she will not forsake me now.” 

The girl died a happy death, because, in the 
words of the Memorare, “‘never was it known 
that anyone who fled to thy (her) protection, im- 
plored thy help, and sought thy intercession, was 
left unaided.” 

But that girl was one of a few. 

At death we stand before the gates of eter- 
nity. We have been members of the great Com- 
munion of Saints. Our aim has been to gain 
eternal life. The time comes then when our 
objective will be forever won or lost. 


108 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


At that solemn moment the Communion rushes 
to our aid. The Church pleads for us and con- 
soles us with prayers of great sweetness and calls 
upon the members of that vast society to aid us 
in our last and momentous battle. 

How superbly lovely and appealing are the 
words of the Church in this decisive moment! 

The priest comes, extends his consecrated 
hands over the head of the sick person, and says: 
“May Our Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of 
the world and Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
be clement and propitious to thee by the inter- 
cession of the Apostles Peter and Paul and of 
all the Saints.” Then, when he is about to anoint 
the sick person, he says: “In the name of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, 
let there be extinguished in thee any diabolical 
power, by the imposition of our hands and by 
the invocation of all the Saints, Angels, Arch- 
angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, 
Confessors, Virgins, and all the Saints together.” 

Afterwards, he anoints the eyes, ears, lips, 
hands, and feet of the sick person according to 


FINAL COMPENSATION _ 109 


the words of St. James: “Is any man sick among 
your Let him bring in the priests of the church 
and let them pray over him, anointing him with 
oil, in the name of the Lord. And the prayer 


of faith shall save the sick man. . . . And if he 
be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (v. 14, 
15.) 


The grace of final perseverance cannot be 
merited by any man. It is a gift of God. But 
certainly it can be obtained by prayer. “Ask, 
and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall 
find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For 
every one that asketh receiveth; and he that 
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall 
be opened.” (Matt. vii: 7, 8.) These are the 
words of the Lord. These, His promises. And 
heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words 
shall not pass away. 

If ever man needs prayer, it is at his last hour. 
Then it is that the Church pleads: “Lord, have 
mercy on him; Christ, have mercy on him; Lord, 
have mercy on him; Holy Mary, pray for him; 
all ye Holy Angels and Archangels pray for him; 


110 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


. all ye Choirs of the Just, pray for him; ... 
John the Baptist, St. Joseph, all ye Patriarchs 
and Prophets, pray for him; St. Peter, St. Paul, 

. all ye holy Apostles and Evangelists, pray 
for him; all ye holy disciples of the Lord, all 
ye holy Innocents, ... pray for him. All ye 
Holy Martyrs, ... all ye holy Bishops and 
Confessors . . . all ye Monks and Hermits, all 
ye holy Virgins and Widows, pray for him, pray 
for him. All ye Saints of God, make interces- 
sion for him. Be merciful, spare him, O Lord. 
From Thy anger, deliver him, O Lord... . 
From an unhappy death, from the pains of Hell, 
from all evil, from the power of the devil, de- 
liver him, O Lord. By Thy Nativity, by Thy 
Cross and Passion, by Thy Death and Burial, by 
Thy Glorious Resurrection, by Thy Admirable 
Ascension, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, the 
Comforter. . . . Deliver him, O Lord. We sin- 
ners beseech Thee to hear us, that Thou spare 
him. . . . We beseech Thee to hear us. . . .” 

And then the priest addresses the soul in these 
beautiful, and solemn words: 


FINAL COMPENSATION 111 


“Depart, Christian soul, out of this world in 
the name of God the Father Almighty Who cre- 
ated thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of 
the Living God Who suffered for thee, in the 
name of the Angels, Archangels, Thrones, and 
Dominations, Cherubim and Seraphim; in the 
name of the Patriarchs and Prophets, of the Holy 
Apostles and Evangelists, of the Holy Martyrs 
and Confessors, of the Monks and Hermits, of 
the Holy Virgins and of all the Saints of God, 
and may thy place be this day in peace and thy 
abode in holy Sion, through Christ Our Lord.” 

Thus the Church calls upon the members of 
the great corporation for their help in the hour 
of death. 

The priest then continues: 

“God of mercy, God of goodness; O God, Who 
according to the multitude of Thy mercies for- 
givest the sins of such as repent, and graciously 
remittest the guilt of their past offenses, merci- 
fully regard this Thy servant and grant him full 
discharge from all his sins, who most earnestly 
begs it of Thee. Remove, O Merciful Father, 


112 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


whatever is corrupt in him through human 
frailty, or by the snares of the enemy; make him 
a true member of the Church, and let him partake 
of the fruit of Thy. Redemption. Have com- 
passion, O Lord, on his tears, and admit him to 
the Sacrament of Thy reconciliation, who has no 
hope but in Thee, through Christ Our Lord.” ~ 

There are a few other prayers and then the 
priest concludes: ““We commend to Thee, O Lord, 
the soul of this Thy servant, and beseech Thee, 
Jesus Christ, Redeemer of the world, that as in 
mercy to him Thou becamest man, so now Thou 
wouldst vouchsafe to admit him into the number 
of the blessed. Remember, O Lord, he is Thy 
creature, not made by strange gods but by Thee, 
the only true and living God. . . . Let his soul 
find comfort in Thy sight, and remember not his 
former sins, nor any of those excesses which he 
has fallen into through the violence of passion and 
corruption. For although he has sinned, he has 
retained a true faith in Thee, Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost; he has a zeal for Thy honor and 
has faithfully adored Thee, his God and Creator. 


Se 


FINAL COMPENSATION 16K} 


. . . Let the Heavens be opened to him and the 
Angels rejoice with him. Receive, O Lord, Thy, 
servant in Thy Kingdom. Let the Archangel 
St. Michael, the chief of the heavenly host con- 
duct him. Let the Holy Angels of God meet him 
and bring him into the city of the Heavenly Jeru- 
salem. May Blessed Peter the Apostle to whom 
were given the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, 
receive him. . . . May St. John, the beloved dis- 
ciple, to whom God revealed the secrets of 
Heaven, intercede for him. May all the Holy 
Apostles to whom was given the power of binding 
and loosing, pray for him. May all the Blessed 
and Chosen Servants of God, who in this world 
have suffered torments for the name of Christ, 
pray for him. That, being delivered from the 
body of corruption, he may be admitted into the 
Kingdom of Heaven, through the assistance and 
merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Amen.” 

And when death comes, the Church, ever 
watchful of the living, says, for those present: 
“Grant O Lord, that while we here lament the 
departure of Thy servant, we may ever remember 


114 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


that we are most certainly to follow him. Give 
us grace to prepare for that last hour by a good 
life, that we may not be surprised by a sudden 
and unprovided death, but be ever watching when 
Thou shalt call, that so we may enter into eternal 
glory through Christ, Our Lord, Amen... .” 
Apparently all is over. But the Church con- 
tinues to pray for the departed. In the preface 
of the Mass for the Dead, she says: “In whom 
the hope of a blessed resurrection is shown to 
us, that they who are saddened by the certain 
necessity of dying be comforted by the promise 
of eternal life to come. For the life of Thy 
faithful, O Lord, is changed, not destroyed; and 
when the home of this earthly life is dissolved, 
an everlasting dwelling in Heaven shall be gained. 
Wherefore with the Angels and Archangels, with 
the Thrones and Dominions, with all the host of 
the Army of Heaven we sing the hymn of Thy 
glory, saying without end: Holy, holy,” etc... . 
Many and beautiful are the prayers and cere- 
monies of the Church. With them she has 
cuided the solitary human soul from birth to 


FINAL COMPENSATION 15 


death. With them she pleads for the salvation 
of millions through the centuries. And of all, 
none has greater grandeur and solemnity, none 
has a more maternal kindliness and solicitude 
than those with which she prepares and blesses 
the soul at the hour of death. Those who think 
of the Church as simply a great and intricate 
organization, a rigid guardian of dogma, have 
never known the Church as a gentle and loving 
mother in time of anguish and despair, a watch- 
ful and eager friend when life’s last moment is 
near. 

We have, thus far, discussed some of the 
duties of the members of the Communion of 
Saints in the Church militant. In our next con- 
sideration, we will take up the relation of the 
members of the Communion of Saints in the 
Church militant with the dead. 


ane 


i et Hy 





Second Part 


OUR RELATIONS WITH THE 
DEAD 


“He that believeth in Me, although he be dead, 
shall live.” OTE TORN. xipens 





LIFE AFTER DEATH 


HERE do souls go after death? 
Shall we ever see again those who have 
left this world? 

Can we in any way communicate with those 
who are dead? 

Life with its joys and its sorrows flows on 
smoothly, steadily and continuously. Thousands 
die in sudden catastrophes. We read of plagues 
in foreign lands, of floods, wars, earthquakes, 
conflagrations. People die in our own city, town 
or neighborhood. But all this leaves little im- 
pression upon our daily lives. We live with our 
own aspirations and plans unchanged. We go 
our own way, with a thought, a moment of sym- 
pathy, a passing comment, but little more. Un- 
consciously we feel that death has nothing to do 
with us; we seldom stop to picture the world 

119 


120 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


going on just the same, with sunrise and sunset, 
with laughter and talk between friends, with toil 
and sorrow, growth and accomplishment,—and 
we not here. 

Then suddenly there comes the death of one 
whose life is bound up in our own, a dear rela- 
tive, an intimate friend. He dies and is laid 
away,—and around him settles an oblivion as 
deep, almost, as if he had never lived. We have 
a thousand memories of little things he said and 
did. But heis gone. No word comes from him, 
no whisper even. 

We pause for a moment and ask ourselves: 
What has happened to him ¢ Whereis he? Why 
does he not communicate with usr 

And then, after pondering on these questions, 
we ask ourselves: Shall we, can we see him 
again? 

No is the emphatic answer of material science. 
No. He has gone back to the earth from which 
he sprung. His body will unite with the earth 
again and perhaps give growth to vegetable life. 
But he as you knew him is gone. That arrange- 


LIFE AFTER DEATH 121 


ment of atoms that you knew as a relative or 
friend has been destroyed. Save for those scat- 
tered atoms, there is nothing that survives. He 
is gone, gone forever. You have murmured over 
his body: “May he rest in peace!” He will rest 
in peace, in an endless, thoughtless, emotionless 
peace, from which there is no awakening. 

But reason enters and says: Surely all does 
not end with the disintegration of the atoms that 
formed the body of your lost one. There is 
something in him that dreamed and willed and 
thought, something that transcended matter. It 
is the human soul, and that will survive. 

But where is that surviving entity? Has it 
any means of communication with those on 
earth? Shall we behold that soul again? Reason 
cannot answer. To attempt such a thing, it 
would have to descend to the realm of conjecture. 
And conjecture does not furnish us with certi- 
tude, but only with possibility, or at the most, 
with some probability. Life after death is out- 
side human experience. Reason alone can do 
nothing for us. 


122 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


When the astronomer discusses life on the 
planet Mars he is dealing with hypotheses. But 
with a very powerful telescope, that astronomer 
can discover indications of “channels” and other 
data which can raise his hypothesis to the dig- 
nity of a theory. When man, however, comes 
to treat of the spirit world he wanders purely 
in a world of conjecture. He has no instrument 
to furnish him with data, no means by which he 
can give his suppositions any foundation in fact. 

What can he do? Reason, alone, as we have 
said, cannot help him. It can prove that a soul 
survives, that there is a Supreme Being for 
whom that soul was made, that the Supreme 
Being gives that soul a suitable reward or pun- 
ishment. But when we ask: Where is that soul 
after death? Has it any means of communica- 
tion with us, or we with it? Shall we see it 
again? Then we must turn to the great helper, 
faith. 

Remember, faith is not the resource of the 


1 See: “Spiritism and Common Sense,” by C. M. de Heredia, 
S. J. (New York), Kenedy & Sons. 


LIFE AFTER DEATH 123 


outwitted. As we remarked earlier in these con- _ 
siderations, most of our earthly knowledge does 
not come from our personal experience but from 
the testimony of others. Faith is the network 
that holds the living millions together. At every 
turn, almost every minute, we are dependent on 
information obtained from those who inhabit the 
world with us. 

Now, we want knowledge of a world beyond 
our own experience. To whom shall we go for 
information? There is no hesitation, The 
Catholic knows that God has given the keys of 
heaven to the Church,—his answer is ready. 
We will ask the Catholic Church. 

We ask the Church: Can we see our loved 
ones after death? 

The Church immediately answers: Yes. 

Where are they? 

The Church answers this question in detail. 

We go farther, and ask: Is there any way of 
communicating with the souls of the dead? 

Again the Church replies without hesitation: 
ies: 


124 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


But we are human. So we want to see, to 
feel, to touch, to experience in some way this 
communication, and we ask again: Can the souls 
of the dead communicate with us in a manner 
which we may behold with our ordinary senses? 

Once more, the Church answers: Yes. 


II 
“coo THAT IS HEAVEN!” 


HE Church tells us that we shall meet our 
friends and relatives and all we hold dear 
in the next world. 

Says Revelation: “And these shall go into 
everlasting punishment, but the just into everlast- 
ing life.” (Matt. xxv: 46.) We know with certi- 
tude, then, that some will go to hell and some to 
heaven. Just now, I shall not speak of hell. 

Then, what is heaven? Says Scripture: 
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know 
Thee the only true God.” (John xvii: 3.) To 
see God and be united with Him in the most 
intimate love for all eternity—that is heaven. 

A look of indifference, or skepticism, even of 
chagrin, comes over the face of the listener. “Is 
that all? Is that heaven? Is that what we 
should look forward to, work for, dream of? Is 
that the goal of life? I would rather stay here 


125 


126 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


on earth. Itis beautiful here. It is human here. 
I have my good friends and good times. I prefer 
the earth.” 

It is very natural to think this way. A reward 
given by a human being at times seems beyond 
belief. Is it not true that oftentimes we cannot 
conceive the extent of a man’s gratitude for a 
little kindly deed? The proportionate munifi- 
cence or magnificence of his reward surprises us. 

How much more vast, more inconceivably 
great, must be the reward of a God? Of what 
unimaginable loveliness must be the paradise 
which the Master has prepared for His faithful? 
It is so far beyond our lowly human comprehen- 
sion that we cannot realize a state of such limit- 
less contentment. Let one take the beauty of the 
sunset, the love of a great-hearted mother, the 
sweetness of an hour of perfect kindness, the 
intoxicating bliss of a moment of dazzling glory 
or of great accomplishment; let one take the sum 
of life’s most intense minutes of beauty, love and 
joy, and magnify all until his imagination stag- 
gers beneath the overwhelming splendor and 


“SO THAT IS HEAVEN!” bay 


dazzlingly huge proportions of his creation. Then, 
the acme of his effort, the most perfect moment 
of his great experiment is as nothing beside the 
bliss that an Infinite Love has devised. One’s 
heart, it seems, would burst if it should try to 
encompass even one stray joy of paradise. 

One must not think of heaven simply as a 
place of “harps of gold” and shining lights. It 
is a state that will fill and satisfy the humblest, 
simplest soul, as well as the soul of the supreme 
artist. Every fleeting moment of quiet joy or 
peace on earth is but a swift, small glimpse of 
paradise. Here we see dimly, beauty, truth, 
goodness. In heaven we shall be near to the 
Heart of all Beauty, Truth and Goodness,—God! 

The inability of the human soul to comprehend 
heaven reminds me of a story. 

One Christmas Eve, a small boy sat beneath 
a Christmas tree, eagerly opening his gifts. He 
glanced quickly through the heap of packages for 
one thing above all others—the gift of his god- 
father. It was not there. Then, he heard a 
step and turned. His godfather stood in the 


128 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


room behind him. For months the boy had been 
waiting for this moment, the one in which he 
would receive this particular present. For his 
godfather was very rich. | 

The godfather held back a moment further to 
arouse the boy’s curiosity, and then, bending 
down, gave him a little package. The boy 
eagerly cut the cord and opened the box. 

A look of intense disappointment clouded his 
face. He found only a few printed pages with 
signatures at the end. So thwarted were his 
high hopes that he hurled the papers into the 
fireplace. 

His mother by a quick movement saved them 
from the flames. 

The godfather looked on, a little displeased. 
But his wife, who knew human nature better than 
he, gave the little fellow a handful of small coins. 

The boy’s face brightened with joy. He 
danced around the room with delight. He hada 
handful of coins. He was wealthy by his own 
conceit. Pastry and candy could he buy with his 
pennies. At that hour he asked no more. 


“SO THAT IS HEAVEN!” 129 


The godfather left for home. Then the boy’s 
mother took the papers she had rescued from 
the fire, folded them carefully and put them 
away. 

They were deeds giving the boy ownership of 
a great estate. And the boy raced about, happy 
as he jangled his pocketful of pennies. 

Weare like that boy. To-day wecannot realize 
the greatness of the gift of heaven. “That 
they may know Thee” is as unintelligible to us 
as the legal script to the boy. It is to such a lack 
of comprehension that St. Paul refers when he 
says: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, 
I understood as a child, I thought as a child. 
But when I became a man, I put away the things 
Piecchilds val a Gonexic2,') 

In our material body we are as children. We 
have to use material images when we think. We 
imagine that there is no happiness like worldly 
happiness. And if we wish to think of a celestial 
happiness we retain our present conception as a 
foundation for it. This is wrong, though we can 
not see our error now. And so it is that St. 


130 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


Paul continues: “We see (God) now through a 
glass in an obscure manner; but then, face to 
face. Now I know (God) in part, but then I 
shall know (Him) as-I am known.” (Id. 12.) 

Many have endeavored to explain to mortals 
what heaven is. But all have failed, and all 
will fail, because comprehension of it is impos- 
sible. It is written that “the eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the 
heart of man what things God hath prepared for 
them ithatiove tim.) Cl Corso.) 

Descriptions are not only vain but misleading. 
One writes of heaven as eternal music. But 
some, like Napoleon, do not like music. Another 
writes as 1f heaven were the Olympus of the 
poets, but there are thousands who would shrink 
in terror from the thought of listening eternally 
to poetry. Each portrays heaven according to 
his tastes and disposition. And no man knows 
anything about it. It is far better to leave the 
task alone. Such imaginary heavens are but 
earthly heavens at the best. 

Heaven is the fulfillment of all our wishes, 


“SO THAT IS HEAVEN!” — 131 


the satisfaction of all our desires, without sur- 
feit, without boredom, and all because we possess 
God Himself, and know Him face to face. 

Heaven is one place in which we may meet 
the souls of the departed if we keep the promises 
we made to God in baptism and die in the state 
of grace, with all the debts incurred by our sins 
paid. But should we, dying in the state of grace, 
be yet in debt for sin, we may meet those who 
have gone before, in purgatory. For they, too, 
may be still paying for their sins. 

“The most valiant Judas (Maccabees) ex- 
horted the people to keep themselves from sin. 
... And making a gathering, he sent twelve 
thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacri- 
fice to be offered for the sins of the dead... . 
And because he considered that they who had 
fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid 
up for them. It is therefore a holy and whole- 
some thought to pray for the dead, that they 
may be loosed from their sins.” (II Mach. xii: 
42-40.) 

Now, if we can pray for the dead who have 


132 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


died in godliness to be loosed from their sins, 
it is because they are neither in heaven nor in 
hell, but in another place in which they are pay- 
ing for their sins and where we can help them. 
That place is called “Purgatory.” 

Nothing defiled shall enter heaven, says the 
scripture. Purgatory is a place of purification. 
There, those souls that died in the friendship of 
God are being made clean. They are like patients 
who do not venture from the hospital until en- 
tirely cured. When their health is perfect, they 
may enter heaven. Purgatory is witness to the 
Infinite Justice of God, but hovering over it 
always is His Infinite Love. When the defiled 
soul is purged of its stains, then it may go to 
the mansion of Him who is All-Purity and Per- 
fection. 


Til 
HELPLESS PRISONERS 


N time of war the thought of wounded pris- 
oners is very heartrending. News of the 
death of a friend or relative is tragic enough. 
But that news is final. He who died is out of 
misery. But the report that a loved one is 
wounded and in the hands of the enemy brings 
to us a heavy burden of worry and fear. Tor- 
turing pictures of him arise,—suffering in prison 
camp, perhaps dying, without friendly care. One 
is eager to do all in his power to alleviate such 
distress. 

Faith tells us that the souls of the dead may 
be detained in purgatory. There, they suffer for 
their sins. They are like the helpless wounded 
prisoners who can do nothing for themselves. 
But, unlike the prisoners, they are not in the 
enemy’s camp. 

133 


134 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


In our solicitude for them we turn to faith 
and ask whether we may help them, and how. 
Faith replies Yes—and points out the way. 
Those suffering souls are members of the Com- 
munion of Saints. They can receive help 
through the prayers and good works of other 
members, and above all through the sacrifice of 
the Mass. We have referred to these means 
previously. But there is another most potent 
method of assisting these souls—and that is by 
indulgences, 

“An indulgence is the extra-sacramental re- 
mission of the temporal punishment due, in 
God’s justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which 
remission is granted by the Church in the exer- 
cise of the power of the Keys, through the appli- 
cation of the superabundant merits of Christ and 
of the saints, and for some just and reasonable 
motive.” 

A man runs down another with his automobile 
and is summoned into court. He is found guilty. 
The judge pronounces sentence upon him. He 
is to spend a term in jail, and, in addition, to 


HELPLESS PRISONERS 135 


pay a fine. But he is thoroughly repentant. He 
makes an appeal to the court for leniency. The 
judge cancels the portion of the sentence that 
commits the man to jail but rules that he must 
pay his fine. 

The sinner is like the automobilist. In the 
Sacrament of Penance he is restored to grace, and 
the sentence consigning him to punishment in 
hell is abrogated. Like the driver, he is freed 
from serving his time in jail. But as with the 
one there still remained the fine, so with the 
other, there still remains the temporal punish- 
ment due to sin. This the sinner must pay. If 
he pays for this temporal punishment in full on 
this earth and dies in the state of grace, he goes 
to heaven. If, however, at his death there still 
is in his soul a venial sin, or if he has remaining 
some punishment to be paid, he must go to pur- 
gatory. It is to undergo this purification that 
there are souls in purgatory. 

These souls are entirely helpless. But, just 
as a fine in court may be paid by the friends of 
a convicted man, so the members of the Com- 


136 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


munion of Saints may help alleviate the suffering 
souls in purgatory. This they can do chiefly 
through indulgences and the holy sacrifice of 
the Mass. 

Oftentimes, those in the Church Militant are 
very poor, not only temporally but spiritually. 
Our merits may not be enough for ourselves. 
We may not have the means to have Masses said 
for the souls of these dead. But, however poor 
we may be, we can always take advantage of the 
treasury of indulgences. We are members of 
the Communion of Saints and we have this great 
common fund from which to draw. Out of this 
common fund we are able to pay off our own 
spiritual debts or the debts of others, as, for 
instance, the suffering souls in purgatory. 

An indulgence is not the forgiveness of the 
guilt of sin. It presupposes this forgiveness. It 
is not a sacrament, as, for example, Baptism, in 
which the guilt of sin and its temporal punish- 
ment are remitted, or Penance, where the guilt 
of mortal sin is removed and with it the eternal 
punishment due to sin. Nor is an indulgence 


HELPLESS PRISONERS 137 


like the “penance” imposed by the confessor 
when he gives absolution, for this is an integral 
part of the Sacrament of Penance. An indul- 
gence is an extra-sacramental remission. It dif- 
fers also from penitential and other good works 
undertaken of our own accord as satisfaction for 
the temporal punishment of sins of our own or 
of others, such as prayer, fasting, almsgiving. 
For all these are personal good works and draw 
their value from the merit of him who performs 
them. Whereas an indulgence places at the pent- 
tent’s or petitioner’s disposal those merits of 
Christ and of the saints that form the treasury of 
the Communion of Saints. 

An indulgence releases the penitent from the 
obligation of performing a canonical penance (as 
it was often called in the early days of the 
Church) and frees him from the temporal pun- 
ishment which he has incurred in the sight of 
God. But, as St. Thomas says: ‘He who gains 
indulgences is not thereby released outright from 
what he owes as a penalty, but he is provided 
with the means of nayike fonts: )) henehurch, 


138 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


granting indulgences, neither leaves the penitent 
helplessly in debt nor acquits him of all further 
accounting. She merely enables him to meet his 
obligations. 

Indulgences can also be gained for the souls 
of the dead. These indulgences can be applied 
to them because they, too, are true members of 
the Communion of Saints and can be aided by 
our prayers and good works. When the Pope 
grants an indulgence applicable to a soul in 
purgatory, it, as Bellarmine says, ‘does not 
absolve the soul in purgatory from punishment 
due to his sin but offers to God from the treasure 
of the Church whatever may be necessary for 
the cancelling of this punishment.” (De Indul- 
gentlis. p. 137.) 

So, we can help the suffering souls by gaining 
indulgences for them and praying for them, and, 
above all, by having the holy sacrifice of the 
Mass offered for their release. They are suffer- 
ing now, they are helpless. We have it in our 
power to aid them. We should not forget. 


IV 


CAN THE SOULS IN PURGATORY COMMUNICATE 
WITH US? 


N the preceding chapter, I referred to the 

ways by which we could communicate with 
the souls in purgatory. Now, I will attempt to 
answer that interesting question,—Can these 
souls communicate with us in any tangible way, 
that is, in a way perceptible to our ordinary 
senses? 

In diplomatic circles, information is generally 
classified under two heads: official and private. 
Private information, of course, does not carry 
the same weight as does official information, but 
there is no diplomat of any experience who would 
disregard (because it is not official) private in- 
formation from a dependable source. 

The Official (borrowing the above term) 


Revelation of the Church of Christ has only two 
139 


140 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


things to say of purgatory: that we must believe 
in the existence of it; and that the souls are 
detained there on account of their sins and can 
be helped by our prayers, good works, indul- 
gences and especially by the holy sacrifice of 
the Mass. 

Just what the sufferings of these souls are, 
how long they remain there, and similar ques- 
tions, do not bear the stamp of Divine Revela- 
tion. God has not revealed to His Church these 
and other details about purgatory. Therefore, 
to answer the above question we must—and this 
is very important—go out of the province of 
Official Divine Revelation seeking our sources of 
information in Private Revelation and appealing 
to that very solid authority, the “Mind of the 
Church” (Sensus Ecclesiz). This unchanging 
opinion of the Church carries an authority of no 
small importance. 

In almost any book of piety, and particularly 
in the “Lives of the Saints,” we may find an af- 
firmative answer to our question. Apparitions 
of the suffering souls are frequent in the experi- 


THE SOULS IN PURGATORY 1aq1 


ence of the saints and other pious people, and 
there are innumerable narratives concerning 
them throughout ecclesiastical literature. 

In the city of Rome, on the other side of the 
Tiber, there is, in a place called Prati di Castello, 
a church dedicated to the Sacred Heart and the 
Suffering Souls in Purgatory. Attached to this 
church is perhaps the most curious museum in 
the entire world: the Museum of Purgatory. 
There one may find a quantity of more or less 
well-authenticated objective evidence collected 
from many lands substantiating the belief in 
apparitions of souls from purgatory. A visit to 
that museum leaves a deep and lasting impres- 
sion. 

Among the many objects there is one that re- 
mains vividly in mind,—an open prayerbook with 
the imprint of the fingers of a hand burnt 
upon. it. | 

A young man, a soldier in the Napoleonic 
wars, was severely wounded on a battlefield. As 
he lay there helpless, he beheld an apparition of 
his mother who hay died when he was but a 


142 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


child of three or four. She told him she had 
been suffering in purgatory since her death, and 
all because she had neglected to instill into her 
child’s young heart a true spirit of religion. It 
was because of failing in her duty to this very 
son that she was being punished, and she pleaded 
with him to pray for her. 

He was not of a religious mind and the ap- 
parition amazed him. At first he thought it 
merely an hallucination induced by his wound. 
But there was no mistaking the piteous pleading 
of his mother’s voice. He promised fervently 
that he would do all he could to alleviate her 
suffering. 

He recovered. But as the months passed, and 
the pleasures of the world engulfed him again, 
he forgot to keep his sacred promise. 

One day he was at Mass with a prayerbook — 
open before him. Suddenly he heard again the 
pleading of his mother’s voice. But this time she 
did not vanish without leaving a remembrance 
that would urge him to help her. As he gazed 
down on the open book he saw there, burned 


THE SOULS IN PURGATORY 143 


deeply into its pages, the imprint of the fingers 
of her hand. Here was an actual sign—you may 
see it to-day in Rome—there would be no for- 
getting this, or dismissing it as a mere illusion. 
The young man’s life was a changed one. His 
one ambition was to free his mother from her 
suffering and to assist the other souls in purga- 
tory. 

I did not investigate all the evidence and docu- 
ments in the museum, but on the whole I received 
this very vivid impression: Purgatory is a place 
of terrible suffering. We hear much about the 
mercy of God and His great love for us, but we 
must not forget that He who is infinitely merci- 
ful is also infinitely just. One has but to turn 
his eyes towards a crucifix to behold the effect 
of Divine Justice. “. . . We have seen Him and 
there was no sightliness. . . . Despised and most 
abject of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted 
with infirmity . . . and we have thought Him as 
it were a leper and one struck by God and af- 
flicted”—exclaims the Prophet Isaias in his pro- 
phetic vision of Our Divine Saviour in His Pas- 


\ 


144 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


sion. (liii: 3-5.) And He suffered thus exceed- 
ingly because “He hath borne our infirmities and 
carried our sorrows.” (Idem.) If Christ had to 
suffer so as to satisfy Divine Justice for our sins, 
one shrinks from the thought of the same Divine 
Justice meting out punishment to the sinner him- 
self. “For if in the green wood they do these 
things, what shall be done in the dry?” (Luke 
XX 21") 

When we read of the overwhelming penances 
that saints and other pious Christians impose 
upon themselves to avoid purgatory and to help 
the souls already suffering there, we have its true 
meaning brought home to us. It is then that we 
are able to understand why the Church puts into 
the mouths of the imprisoned souls that most 
sorrowful pleading: “De profundis clamavi” 
... “Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, O 
Lord, Word, hear my ‘voice: 0). 7. /CPsiexsxie: 
1); and why she has them exclaim: “Have pity 
on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, 
because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.” 
(Job'xix 2/21.) 


THE SOULS IN PURGATORY 145 


All the ecclesiastical writers who have depicted 
the pains of purgatory express the Mind of the 
Church in declaring that these pains are severe. 
Furthermore, the Church itself authorizes and 
approves of perpetual Masses for the benefit of 
a suffering soul. Hence, in her judgment, there 
is a possibility that a soul may remain in purga- 
tory for a long time. All the Catholic writers 
and doctors agree that these imprisoned souls 
can do nothing towards the payment of their own © 
debts, and for this reason they are generally 
spoken of as “poor” souls. They must remain in 
purgatory until they have paid by suffering for 
all the punishment due their sins, or they must 
be freed by the assistance of those in this world. 
Too many of us are prone in the daily preoccu- 
pation of our lives to forget these sufferers so 
utterly dependent on our help, these prisoners 
sentenced by their own sins, crying out to us in 
voices we do not hear, to accomplish a little, say 
a prayer, give alms, do a good work, or have 
Mass said for them, that they may be delivered 
from their torments. And, too many of us fail 


146 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


to realize that purgatory may await us also. We 
are, perhaps, but little different from thousands 
of souls now suffering there. Now is the time 
to accumulate satisfactions, for all too soon may 
come the days of our helplessness. 

In studying the life of the Saviour on earth, 
we find that He performed His miracles for those 
whose misery was exceptional, as in the case of 
the lepers; for those whose prayer was full of 
faith, as the Centurion; for those who were 
unable to help themselves, as the paralytic at the 
pool; for those whose physical suffering was due 
to sin; or, finally, for those who were His 
friends, as happened in the instances of the 
miraculous resurrection of Lazarus, or at Cana, 
when He changed water into wine at the request 
of His Blessed Mother although His time had 
not yet come. 

The first reason for Christ’s miracles was to 
give proof of His divine mission and establish 
the faith. But we know that even in our day 
God yet works miracles, to give us proof of the 
sanctity of His friends in heaven, the saints. 


THE SOULS IN PURGATORY 147 


Of this we will speak a little later. The saints, 
who are in the hands of God, require a special 
permission to appear to us; so there is no doubt 
that the souls in purgatory likewise must have 
God’s permission, for they are prisoners. Some 
Catholic doctors maintain that a miracle is needed 
for these souls to appear, because, they argue, 
there is no natural means of communication be- 
tween a departed soul and those still on earth. 

Now, we repeat our question: “Can the souls 
in purgatory communicate with us in some tangi- 
ble way ?” 

Yes, we answer, if God chooses to perform a 
miracle for them. 

But, we ask again, if a miracle is necessary, is 
God willing to perform this miracle for the souls 
He is punishing? 

One cannot answer this question with positive 
certainty. There are no apodictical or absolutely 
conclusive reasons for or against it. But after 
studying every phase of the question we find 
many reasons of congruence, or plausible reasons, 
in favor of an affirmative reply. 


148 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


We have just made an analysis of the different 
types for whom our Lord, during His life, per- 
formed miracles. When we compare these with 
the souls in purgatory we have reason enough in 
favor of believing that He would perform a 
miracle for these poor souls. Their misery is 
exceptional; their faith is as strong as it can be; 
they are helpless themselves; their sufferings are 
caused directly by their sins; and, finally, they are 
the dearest friends of His Divine Heart. As at 
Cana, there is the all-powerful intercession of 
our Blessed Mother in their favor. 

Christ has tied His merciful hands with the 
bonds of Divine Justice. Though the Blessed 
Mother and the saints in heaven can pray for 
the sufferers they can not merit for them. But 
we are living members of the Communion of 
Saints and have in our possession not only our 
own merits but the merits of Christ our Lord, 
the Blessed Mother, and the saints. 

The Church is aware of our efficacy in this 
matter and has a special feast, All Souls’ Day, to 
remind us of our suffering brethren. In addition, 


THE SOULS IN PURGATORY 149 


the entire month of November is dedicated to the 
memory of the departed. In her liturgy she re- 
members these souls often, and daily she reminds 
us of them in the sacrifice of the Mass. 

Nevertheless, a special, concrete dedication of 
the activities of the faithful is needed if many 
souls are to be freed from purgatory. The only 
way that they may enjoy the liberty of heaven is 
by our personal application of the merits of 
Christ and the saints to them, either by having 
Masses said for their release, or by other good 
works. 

The necessity, then, for personal intervention 
on our part is clear. | 

It is but a truism to say that even our most 
poignant sorrows will eventually disappear. We 
read to-day in the papers of a frightful earth- 
quake. A month hence, it ceases to be “news” 
for the papers. They no longer even mention it. 
The calamity, as far as we are concerned, might 
never have happened. It is forgotten. Perhaps 
a friend or relative dies. We are grief-stricken. 
Loud and sincere is our lamentation. Fervent 


150 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


and long are our prayers. A break has come in 
our associations with our fellowmen, and we 
brood and weep, and feel that the future will be 
darkened for us. We have Masses said and go 
into mourning. But the years pass. At first, we 
meet constant reminders,—a picture, a book, a 
letter that slips suddenly into our sight. But soon 
we remember our loved one scarcely ever save on 
the anniversary of his death. 

It is the old, old story. The mists of time, little 
by little, obscure the harsh outline, and then ob- 
literate it. There are very few on this earth who 
cannot pause at this moment and recall one or 
two at least of those whom they once deeply 
mourned but now have forgotten. 

Who is going to pray for these souls that are 
forgotten? Who is going to help those poor 
souls who never have any one to pray for them? 

Oh, there is need of a reminder, there is need 
of some intervention to bring back to memory 
those thousands of souls that have gone on before 
us. Do you not think, then, that the Lord allows 
this soul or that to appear sometimes, as did the 


THE SOULS VIN PURGATORY Us t 


mother who left the imprint of her fingers on her 
son’s book, not only as a reminder to him of her 
own helplessness but also as a sign to all the faith- 
ful of the suffering of the forgotten souls? 
One cannot reply with an incontrovertible affirm- 
ative. But the need is clear. The inclination of 
the entire argument is towards a compelling 
Yes! | 

There is no wonder in the eyes of the majority 
of those who read, in the lives of the saints or 
in ecclesiastical history, of hundreds of appari- 
tions of the souls in purgatory. The sorrowful 
faces, the tortured bodies, the pitiful cries of 
these poor souls pleading for help, appear not 
simply as possibilities but as probabilities that the 
Saviour did work even a miracle, that they might 
obtain aid. And there is always the intercession 
of our Blessed Mother. He did not refuse her on 
earth. It seems highly improbable that when she, 
beholding the suffering of those she loves, pleads 
that these souls may obtain assistance, He will 
refuse her in heaven. 

One cannot, of course, admit that this or that 


152 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


apparition is trwe unless there is sufficient proof of 
its authenticity. But considering these numerous 
apparitions as a whole, it seems almost certain 
that some of them, at least, are real. Thousands 
of people may bring home tales of extreme suffer- 
ing from a distant country. On hearing them, I 
may say: “This story is an exaggeration; that . 
is obviously false; this one seems probable;” and 
so on. I must analyze each case and appraise it 
at its own value. But when I consider these 
stories all together, I come to the conclusion that 
there is some truth that gave rise to them all. I 
am certain that there is suffering in that distant 
country. So do we consider the stories of ap- 
paritions. Some may be false. Some may be 
exaggerated. But we can have well-founded 
confidence that there is a truth beneath them as 
a whole. And that is why, to the question, “Can 
the souls in purgatory communicate with us?” 
we answer— Yes. 


V 
DO THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN OBSERVE US? 


E read that at the death of our Lord: 

“The graves were opened; and many 

bodies of the saints that had slept arose; and com- 

ing out of their tombs after His resurrection, 

came into the Holy City and appeared to many.” 
(Matt. xxvii: 52-53.) 

Clearly, then, the saints can appear to us. 

We read, too, that Christ Himself, after His 
Resurrection, appeared to His disciples in His 
Glorified Body. “But they being troubled and 
affrighted, supposed that they saw a spirit. And 
He said to them... . See my hands and my 
feet, that it is myself; feel and see; for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have.” 
(Luke xxiv: 37-39.) 

But can the soul of a saint communicate with 
us? 

153 


154 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


“Behold,” say the Gospels, telling of the 
transfiguration of our Lord, “there appeared to 
them Moses and Elias.” (Matt. xvii: 3.) Moses 
was dead, and hence it was his soul and not his 
body that appeared to Peter, John and James. 

Accordingly, there is no question of the possi- 
bility of a soul appearing. That isa fact. Lam 
not going to discuss here whether or not it was 
a miracle. It is enough that Moses and Elias 
appeared. 

But, to get down to the root of the question,— 
is it probable that the souls of the saints that are 
in heaven will appear to us more or less fre- 
quently ? 

Since the souls of the saints in heaven are in 
the hands of God, they can do nothing without 
His permission. Therefore, to answer the above 
question, one would first have to reply to this: “Is 
there any good reason why God should allow the 
souls of the saints to appear to us?” 

As with the discussion relating to the souls in 
purgatory, we again must leave the realm of 
Official Divine Revelation to consult the Mind of 
the Church. 


/ 


DO SAINTS IN HEAVEN OBSERVE US? 155 


“I say to you,” says the Lord, “that even so 
there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner 
that does penance more than upon ninety-nine 
just who need not penance.” (Luke xv: 7.) 

Since, before the resurrection all the saints 
were in the bosom of Abraham and there were 
none in heaven, Christ there refers to the angels, 
for He says later: “So I say to you there shall be 
joy before the angels of God upon one sinner 
doing penance.” But His words do not exclude 
the saints. He says: “There shall be joy in 
heaven.” The heaven after the resurrection is 
a heaven of saints as well as of angels. 

It is evident, then, that if a sinner’s repentance 
produces such an extraordinary joy in heaven, 
the saints in heaven closely watch that sinner on 
earth. They are spectators at life’s tournament, 
and they follow closely the courage or cowardice, 
zeal or indifference, triumph or failure, of those 
engaged in the combat. 

But our dead do not see us with carnal eyes. 
They live in God and His infinite splendor shines 
over the world, transfiguring it entirely. In the 
light of glory they see our world as an entirely 


156 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


different place. Material happiness or unhappi- 
ness means little to them, unless it is connected 
with our spiritual welfare. Material beauty or 
deformity does not move them. Matter does not 
influence them, for they are spirits and scan our 
lives for their spiritual worth. They search the 
living for supernatural beauty. 

Their attitude is like that of a noble mother I 
knew. She saw with grief that temporal pros- 
perity had taken her son away from God. And 
she prayed to the Master that he might take away 
her son’s worldly goods if they were going to be 
responsible for his spiritual death. When her 
prayers were heard and her son lost the bulk of 
his fortune, although she was sad, her inner 
heart rejoiced for she knew that in this case mis- 
fortune was to be the road back to God. 

Heaven is like a great home. On earth the 
fount of the loftiest love is in the home. There, 
motherly affection is born. There love of father, 
and sister, and brother, and all family relation- 
ships grow, and are nourished. It is true that 
the Gospel says: “They shall neither marry, nor 


DO SAINTS IN HEAVEN OBSERVE US? 157 


be given in marriage; but shall be as the angels 
of\»God ini Heaven). (Matt. ‘xxit:/20.)))This 
does not mean that all worldly ties are broken, but 
rather that these ties are transformed from car- 
nal into spiritual bonds. Our Lord said: “Who- 
soever shall do the will of My Father Who is in 
Heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” 
(Matt. xii: 50.) There is but one home—‘My 
Father’s house . . . and I shall go and prepare 
a place for you.” (John xiv: 2.) 

Yes, heaven is like a great and perfect home, 
and the saints in heaven care for us with a solici- 
tude that is directed to our supernatural welfare. 
The saints see us, but not, as I have previously 
said, with the eyes of the body. One might say 
that they know us. Their vision is like that of 
a searchlight. When we are in the state of grace 
we are in the range of that searchlight. When 
we are in sin we are out of its range. When we 
are in the light of God, they rejoice. But when 
we have fallen away into darkness they have no 
pain. They simply lose sight of us. They know 
of our sins as does our guardian angel. It is like 


158 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


a patriotic father who sees his son renounce his 
country’s flag and shift over to the enemy’s ranks. 
The saints are glad when we fight in the legions 
of God. When we spurn the flag and go over 
to His enemies, we are but traitors in their 
sight. 

But do they forget sinners entirely? It does 
not seem as if this could be so. Among the 
members of the Church Militant are mothers and 
many, many of our loved ones. Their prayers 
and good works arise as incense to heaven. 
Their pleadings are like letters which they write 
to God and His saints in our behalf. To these 
letters surely the saints and our friends in 
heaven cannot turn a cold heart. One feels 
certain that they exercise their influence with 
God to bring us back to the state of grace. This 
is one reason why prayer is so necessary for sal- 
vation. If we do not pray, if no one prays for us 
at all, there is very little hope that we shall be 
saved. 

A priest some years ago related to me a story 
that has always been for me a reminder of the 


DO SAINTS IN HEAVEN OBSERVE US? 159 


power of prayer. One night he had preached 
before a crowded church what he thought his 
most eloquent sermon. After the services he de- 
layed in the sacristy thinking that his efforts 
surely would move some of the congregation to 
seek him for confession. He waited in vain. 
The church became empty and silent. Then, see- 
ing his foolishness, he knelt down to ask God’s 
forgiveness for his presumption. 

As he knelt in prayer, a hand touched his 
shoulder. Behind him in the shadows stood a 
man well along in years. 

“Father,” he addressed the priest, “I have been 
away from the confessional for twenty years. I 
want to come back to God.” 

He madea sincere confession. Then the priest 
was convinced that his eloquence and efforts had 
not been wasted to bring about such a conversion 
as this. So he asked the man what it was in his 
sermon that had moved him so much. 

“Tt was the greatest sermon I have ever heard. 
. .. And the words that went to the bottom of 
my heart were those you repeated over and over: 


160 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


“What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt 
know hereafter.’ (John xiii: 7.) 

“Years ago,” he continued, “my daughter went 
away to a convent to become a nun. I refused to 
give her my consent. It seemed to me insane that 
a girl with the talent my daughter possessed 
should wish to bury herself in this way. She 
would argue with me, plead with me, to relent 
and give her my blessing. I was adamant. And 
she always said to me: ‘What I do thou knowest 
not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.’ 

“She went to the convent. That was twenty 
years ago. Twice a year she writes to me, and 
always closes her letters with these same words. 
To-night when I heard you repeating those words 
in your sermon, it seemed to me that I heard my 
daughter speaking to me, urging me to see the 
light. I heard little else of the sermon. I re- 
solved to go to you to confession. And as I went, 
those words went with me: ‘What I do thou 
knowest not now; but thou shalt know here- 
artery 


The story moved the priest so much that he 


DO SAINTS IN HEAVEN OBSERVE US? 161 


did not recall how his confidence in his eloquence 
had been shattered. Then, in the occupation of 
his duties he forgot about the man and his words. 

About a week later, the man returned. With 
a radiant face he drew a letter from his pocket 
and said to the priest: “Read this!’ 

The letter was from his daughter in the con- 
vent and was dated the morning of his con- 
version. It read: 


“This morning at Mass I was praying to 
mother in heaven for you as I always have 
done, as I always do, when suddenly there came 
to me a deep consolation, and in an instant I 
knew that mother’s intercession had brought 
you back to God. . . .” The letter ended with 
these words: “I hope that thou knowest now.” 


The priest who told me of this said: “After 
he went away I resolved to put no more trust in 
my unaided eloquence.” 

The experience of this priest is but one instance 
in thousands exemplifying the great power of the 
Communion of Saints. 


cove 
APPARITIONS 


HE saints are interested in our supernatural 

welfare. They are ready to help us for the 

good of our souls. But the souls of the saints 

are in the hands of God, and it is clear that they 
can do nothing for us without His permission. 

With these thoughts recapitulated, we are 
ready to answer the question: 

“Will God sometimes allow the saints to com- 
municate visibly with us?” 

As in the discussion relating to the souls in 
purgatory, there are some theologians who main- 
tain that a miracle is necessary to have a saint 
appear to us. So, again, we will consider the 
extreme case, and endeavor to show that there 
are reasons in favor of believing that God will 
perform even a miracle in order that the soul of 


a saint may appear to us. 
162 


APPARITIONS 163 


First of all, we must remember that a real 
miracle can be performed only by God Himself, 
though He may perform it through the ministry 
of another. When we read of this or that man 
performing a miracle we understand that in that 
particular miracle the man was God’s agent. 

As before, we will leave the realm of Official 
Revelation and consider the Mind of the Church. 
It is true that the apostles performed miracles 
for the propagation of the faith, as did also the 
disciples. “. . . they going forth, preached every- 
where; the Lord codperating with them, and con- 
firming the word with signs that followed.” 
(Mark xvi: 20.) “Amen, amen, I say to you,” 
said the Saviour, “he that believeth in Me, that 
works that I do, he shall do also, and greater than 
these he shall do.” (John xiv: 12.) Yet we must 
not forget that these words refer to His friends 
while living in this world and not directly to the 
saints in heaven. 

The Church has always recommended as a 
pious and beneficial practice the veneration of the 
saints, their relics and images. “It is good and 


164 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


useful to invoke them (the saints) supplicatingly 
and to take refuge in their prayers, power, and 
help, to obtain benefits from God through His 
Son Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Who is the sole Re- 
deemer and Saviour.” (Council of Trent; apud 
Denzinger; No. 984.) Furthermore, she con- 
demns all who censure Catholics for such venera- 
tion. “The holy bodies of saintly martyrs and 
others now living with Christ—which bodies 
were the living members of Christ and the temple 
of the Holy Ghost, and which are by Him raised 
unto eternal life and glorified—are to be vene- 
rated by the faithful, for through these bodies 
many benefits are bestowed by God on men; so 
that they who affirm that veneration and honor 
are not due to the relics of saints, or that these 
and other sacred monuments are uselessly hon- 
ored by the faithful . . . are wholly to be con- 
demned, as the Church has already long since con- 
demned and now also condemns them.” (Id. No. 
985.) And again: “The images of Christ, and 
of His Virgin Mother, and of the Saints, are to be 
used and retained, especially in churches, and due 


APPARITIONS 165 


honor and veneratio:1 is to be given to them... 
because the honor which is shown them is re- 
ferred to the originals which they represent; so 
that by the images we kiss, and before which we 
uncover our heads, and kneel, we adore Christ, 
and venerate His Saints whose likeness they 
represent.” (Id. No. 986.) 

The Church, then, places great value on the 
power of the saints to intercede for us. Before 
she pronounces a person “blessed” or a “saint,” 
she requires indubitable testimony of miracles 
wrought by God through the intercession of that 
person, and she exhorts her children to seek the 
aid of that saint in heaven whose intercession 
was so powerful on earth. The many accounts 
of miracles in the lives of the saints and in 
church history show clearly that the Lord is will- 
ing to perform miracles on the intercession of His 
friends in heaven when there is good cause. 
From these considerations, there is no reason to 
deny that Christ, for some good reason, will allow 
the soul of a saint to appear on earth, even were 
a miracle necessary, when the appearance of that 


166 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


saint is to help some person or to aid the Church. 
Of such apparitions there are many testimonials 
in the Church. Not all accounts of apparitions, 
of course, must be believed. But many of these 
accounts are authenticated as far as it is possible 
to do so and are approved by the Church or at 
least tolerated by her. A careful study of these 
apparitions leads one to believe that it is almost 
a certainty that the souls of saints not only may 
but do appear on earth. 

Many and beautiful are the accounts of the 
apparitions of the Blessed Mother and the 
saints. These are well known among the faithful. 
But there is a story of one saint whom very few 
know—St. Philip of Jesus, a Franciscan, born in 
Mexico in 1570, who suffered martyrdom in 1597, 
being the first to sacrifice his life for Christian 
truth in Japan. He was beatified by Pope Urban 
VII in 1627. 

The martyr’s mother was alive at the time of 
the beatification. Though an aged woman, she 
attended the unusual and solemn ceremony in the 
great old Mexican cathedral, the beatification of 


APPARITIONS 167 


the first Mexican saint. Her heart was filled with 
great joy, not so much at the attention she re- 
ceived, for it is a rare and striking thing for a 
mother to be alive at the beatification of her 
martyr son, but because she was a woman of deep 
faith, and unspeakable delight was hers that her 
son had proved such a worthy soldier of Christ. 

The climax of her long life was reached. Her 
joy was overwhelming. The sublime ecstasy of 
those moments was too much for her... and 
three days after the ceremony death came to 
take her from the world. As she was dying, she 
saw her son come down from heaven, and re- 
joiced that it was he who was to conduct her soul 
before Christ. 


Vil 
THE ANGELS 


NE cannot read very many pages of either 

the Old or New Testament without finding 

some mention of the angels. God created an in- 

visible as well as a visible world, we say in the 

Creed, a world of angels as well as a world of 

men. It is of this invisible world, with which we 

are in constant touch, that I am now going to 
write. 

Life is a warfare on earth, said Job. God, our 
Father, gives each one of us a guardian angel, in 
order that we may not enter that momentous 
struggle without someone to advise, protect and 
befriend us. To most of us He gives still another 
angel,—our mother, who taught us, when first 
our affections were being formed, to love not only 
God and His Blessed Mother but our guardian 


angel also. Before we were born, says Suarez 
168 


THE ANGELS 169 


(vide: “De Angelis”) the guardian angel of our 
mother watched over both; but when we came 
into the world, another angel, surely a friend of 
the guardian of the mother, came prepared to 
guard us. 

It is a truth of faith that God created the 
angels—pure spirits that have not a corporeal 
body. These pure spirits, as we read in scrip- 
ture, minister to God, and besides, are used by 
Him in communicating with men. Sometimes, 
He entrusts an angel with the lofty mission of 
acquainting man with the will of heaven, as 
when the Angel Gabriel announced the decree of 
Incarnation to the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes 
He charges an angel with a special mission that 
lasts a long while, as in the beautiful story of 
Tobias. Again, angels are commanded to exe- 
cute the justice of God; as when we read of the 
destruction of Sodom. And, finally, as we read 
in several places in holy writ, He commissions 
the angels to take special care of each one of us. 
“He hath given His Angels charge over thee,” 
say the Fathers, refers not only to all who hope 


170 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


in God, but to all men. Christ Himself, speaking 
to the children presented to Him, said, in those 
words of incomparable beauty: “Their angels in 
Heaven always see the face of my Father.” 
(Matt. xviii: 10.) St. Paul, talking of the faith- 
ful, asked: “Are they (the angels) not all minis- 
tering spirits sent to minister for these, who shall 
receive the inheritance of salvation?’ (Ad. Heb. 
i: 14.) Because of these considerations St. 
Jerome writes: “So great is the dignity of our 
souls, that from birth each one has an Angel 
Guardian.” And the same is what the Fathers 
affirm, the theologians confirm, and Catholics be- 
lieve. 

From the texts above referred to and many 
others which we might have quoted from the 
holy writings, as well as from the constant and 
universal tradition of the Church two facts are 
certain: 

1. That there is an invisible world of spirits. 

2. That these spirits receive missions from 
God for us mortals, and for this reason are called 
angels or “messengers.” 


THE ANGELS 171 


Although invisible, these spirits play a distinct 
part in the government of the world by Divine 
Providence. To them He entrusts many of His 
enterprises. Obviously, they must have some 
means of communication. 

These may be of two kinds: natural, or super- 
natural. Natural means are those that operate 
according to the laws of nature, whether or not 
those laws are known to us. Supernatural means 
are those which require, to operate, a power be- 
yond the laws of all created nature. 

Many of the natural phenomena are well 
known to us. Wemay know the laws that govern 
these means; or we may not know these laws and 
still be able to employ them to produce certain 
effects. A child, for instance, may not be fa- 
miliar with the simplest law of music. And yet, 
in spite of his ignorance, that child may be able 
to play a tune in accordance with musical laws. 
Besides this, there may be many laws of nature, 
concerning the existence of which we have not 
the slightest idea. 

According to the sacred scriptures, angels, as 


172 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


messengers of God, or, at least, with His permis- 
sion, have wrought wonders inexplicable to us. 
The laws that govern these wonders are outside 
our knowledge. The means employed by these 
angels are extraordinary from our point of view; 
yet they may be but ordinary for the angels. 
Those means, totally unknown to us, but clearly 
known to the angels, form a subdivision in the 
general order of nature that is commonly called, 
“preternatural.” In other words, the angels pos- 
sess means of accomplishment which are not 
known to man. These means are connatural to 
them; and although they are not outside of all 
created nature they are, nevertheless, not con- 
natural to us. 

An example may help to explain this distinc- 
tion. We may consider two states among the 
people of the world: that of poverty and that of 
riches. In order to determine the limits of each 
state we will declare the man whose income is 
fifteen dollars a week or less to be in a state of 
poverty; the man whose income is over five thou- 
sand dollars a week, in the wealthy class. The 


THE ANGELS 173 


wealthy man can do many things which the poor 
man cannot do, because his means are greater. 
Weare the poor, and the angels are the rich. Ac- 
complishments connatural to the angels in their 
state are not connatural to us. They, with their 
power and knowledge, can do what we, because of 
our weakness and ignorance, cannot do. 

With these considerations in mind we come to 
our last subject in the Communion of Saints— 
the angels. 

Can the angels communicate with us? 

We have the answer in Scripture. They can. 
Moreover, they have done so, and in a clearly per- 
ceptible way. Although, according to the opin- 
ions of the theologians, they need the permission 
of God (general or particular), they do not or- 
dinarily have to employ a supernatural power. 
It is enough usually for them to use the powers 
connatural to them. These powers, as we have 
seen, we call “preternatural.” 

Veneration and invocation of the angels have 
been customs from the first centuries of the 
Church. The Fathers and ecclesiastical writers 


174 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


have gone to great labor to study and explain to 
the faithful the nature of angels. 

The Church not only invokes the angels in 
official prayers, in her litanies, ritual and the 
holy sacrifice of the Mass, but she celebrates the 
feast of the Guardian Angels all over the world 
on October the second, and for the Archangels 
Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, she has set apart 
three days each year. 

In many countries the feast of the Guardian 
Angel of the nation is celebrated, and everywhere 
we find chapels, churches, and shrines, dedicated 
to the Angels of God or to some of the Arch- 
angels. ‘The Lord is pleased with this veneration, 
and bestows numberless benefits upon the faith- 
ful who invoke these members of the spirit world. 

There are few devotions more beautiful than 
that to the Guardian Angel taught to the little 
ones at their mothers’ knees. This is the per- 
sonal angel who watches over the child in sleep 
and at play. He is with him on his journeys, and 
perhaps it is this watchful guide who stays his 
hand or foot when danger or death is near. He 


THE ANGELS 175 


carries the child’s thoughts to heaven, and, re- 
turning, brings back to him radiant fancies and 
quiet dreams. But when the child grows to be a 
man, when his humility leaves him and he no 
longer marvels at the wonders of the universe, he 
forgets his angel. Nevertheless, this holy guide 
is with him still, watching him faithfully through 
his indifferent years, and rejoicing when the nar- 
rowed eyes are opened wide once more, and, 
child-like, gaze upon the Father in heaven. 

Whether we be great or lowly, rich or poor, our 
angel helps and protects us, and when we die, if 
we die in God’s friendship, it is he who conducts 
our souls to heaven. 

“And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and 
he was carried by the angels into Abraham’s 
bosom.” (Luke xvi: 22.) So, the Church asks 
God at burial to command His angels to take the 
departed soul and waft it to Paradise, and when 
blessing our graves, she pleads that He appoint a 
guardian angel to watch over our mortal re- 
mains. 


VIII 
DEVILS AND THE DAMNED 


FE come now to the last inhabitants of the 
spirit world—the devils and the souls in 
hell. 

First of all we ask: Can the souls of the 
damned appear to us? 

There are no texts in Scripture that afford a 
definitely affirmative or negative answer to this 
question. But it is possible to adduce sufficient 
considerations to give a most probable reply. 

Looking back over some of our previous chap- 
ters it appears that the liberty of departed souls 
is usually in proportion to their sanctity. Thus, 
the saints in heaven are bound by the love of 
God. The souls in purgatory, on the other hand, 
are under God’s Infinite Justice as well as His 
Infinite Mercy. The souls of the damned are 


absolutely under the control of Divine Justice. 
176 


DEVILS AND THE DAMNED 177 


This is a frightful consideration but one that is 
true according to the belief of the Church and the 
teaching of Christ: “Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire.” ~(Matt. xxv: 41.) It is 
clearly put forth in the Symbol of St. Athanasius: 
“« , . And they who have done good things shall 
go into eternal life; they though who have done 
evil shall go into eternal fire. . . . This is the 
Catholic faith and unless a man believe it faith- 
fully and firmly, he cannot be saved.” (Denz. 
N. 40.) 

There are several texts in Scripture that seem 
to declare that it is impossible for the souls of the 
damned to leave hell. For instance, our Lord 
says: “Having bound his hands and feet, cast 
him into exterior darkness...” (Matt. xxii: 
13.) From which it would appear a person 
bound in such a manner would be incapable of 
motion. And, in the parable of Lazarus, when 
Abraham tells the rich in hell: “. . . and be- 
tween us and you is fixed a great chaos; so that 
they who would pass from hence to you cannot, 
nor from thence come hither”’; there, also, seems 


178 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


to be a reason for upholding this contention. 
And it is perfectly true, both from these texts 
and others, that the damned cannot leave hell if 
by “leaving”? one understands an interruption or 
temporal suspension of those pains that are eter- 
nal and perpetual. But if by “leaving” hell is 
understood “an apparition of the soul of one 
damned, without any interruption of his punish- 
ment,” the Catholic writers admit, with St. 
Thomas, that “This can be believed, that some- 
times God may permit the soul of one damned to 
appear to the living to teach them and terrify 
them i oupaOes, Ixix trty..) 

Accordingly, following the opinion of St. 
Thomas, who quotes St. Gregory the Great (Dia- 
logues B. IV) in his favor, an opinion that is held 
by many theologians, and which seems to be con- 
firmed by the many apparitions of this nature in 
the lives of the saints, we may say: yes, the souls 
of the damned can communicate with us in a per- 
ceptible way. 

And now the final question: Can the devil 
communicate with us? 


DEVILS AND THE DAMNED | 179 


The answer is not dependent merely on the 
opinions of theologians. For Catholics the an- 
swer is Yes, and it is based upon fact with a 
foundation in Holy Scripture. In the Book of 
Job (Chaps. i and ii) we see how the Lord al- 
lowed Satan to destroy Job’s property, and hurt 
his family, and even Job himself. And in the 
Book of Tobias (Chap. III) we read of the devil 
Asmodeus killing seven men. In the Gospels we 
discover many instances of men possessed by the 
devil and tortured by devils in diverse ways. Of 
these instances there is need of mentioning only 
one (Luke viii: 26-33): “And they sailed to the 
country of the Gerasens. And when He was 
come forth to the land, there met Him a certain 
man who had a devil now for a long time... 
And when he saw Jesus, he fell down before 
Him; and crying out with a loud voice said: 
What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of the 
Most High God? I beseech Thee, do not torment 
me. And Jesus asked him, saying: What is thy 
name? But he said: Legion; because many 
devils were entered into him. And they besought 


180 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


Him that He would not command them to go into 
the deep. And there was a herd of many swine 
feeding on the mountain: and they besought 
Him that He would suffer them to enter into 
them. And He suffered them. The devils, there- 
fore, went out of the man, and entered the swine; 
and the herd ran violently down a steep place into 
the lake and were stifled.” 

This is a characteristic case of possession. 
From it alone we perceive that the devil, with the 
permission of the Lord, can and has possessed 
man. Hence, it is a matter of divine faith that 
the devil has communicated. with men in a tan- 
gible way. Whether or not the devil now appears 
to men, or that there at present actually exist men 
possessed by the devil is not a matter of faith. 
From the Mind of the Church, however, we may 
be almost certain that such communication or 
possession is not only possible, but a fact. 

The Church, for example, has exorcisms in her 
baptismal ritual, beseeching God not only to take 
the soul of the catechumen out of the power of 
the devil, but to restrict that power from the body 


DEVILS AND THE DAMNED 181 


of the newly-baptized. Again, there is a special 
order among the Minor Orders of the Church 
called the “Exorcist.” The bishop in the ordina- 
tion bestows upon him who receives this order 
special power over demoniacs. Finally, in the 
ritual we have the whole ceremony for the exor- 
cism. 

I do not maintain that these exorcisms are 
necessarily infallible in their application or uni- 
versally successful in their results. For once it 
happened that even the apostles could not cast 
out a devil from one possessed. (Mark ix: 17.) 
But that is not the question at this point. I 
simply adduce the Mind of the Church to show 
that the devil may take possession of a man even 
now. It is for this reason that the Church is 
prepared to help her children against the power 
of Satan. Determining whether or not some par- 
ticular case is actually one of possession is alto- 
gether outside of divine faith. A priest, for in- 
stance, may deem it wise to use the ceremony of 
exorcism for a certain person. Yet we may re- 
main of our own opinion. The Church has never 


182 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


determined, to my knowledge, that any particular 
case, ouitside those in scripture, was actually a case 
of possession. St. Paul tells us that “the wicked 
one shall be revealed . . . whose coming is ac- 
cording to the working of Satan, in all power and 
signs and lying wonders.” (II Thess. ii:8, 9.) 
And he who reads the thirteenth chapter of the 
Apocalypse may see that God will allow Satan 
strange powers at certain times, and Satan with 
these powers will work wondrous things for the 
deception of many. 

I can now give, in a few sentences, the sub- 
stance of this matter. First, the devil has powers 
in the preternatural world that are connatural to 
him. While these powers are not outside of all 
created nature, nevertheless they are not con- 
natural to us. The devil, with God’s permission, 
has used these powers on several recorded occa- 
sions. Furthermore, he is able to do the same 
now, if God allows it; and we are sure that before 
the end of the world God will give him that per- 
mission. But we are also certain that the devil 1s 
powerless unless God grants him special permis- 


DEVILS AND THE DAMNED | 183 


sion. This is a great consolation to us who real- 
ize that the battle against our own weaknesses is 
hard enough without Satan entering so power- 
fully in the lists against us. This, also, is the 
Mind of the Church, shown so clearly in the beau- 
tiful prayers she employs in administering the 
sacraments, blessing holy water, candles, and in 
other sections of her ritual. This, too, has 
always been the belief of the saints. 


IX 
THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 


HERE is one subject more for me to touch 

upon before I close this endeavor of mine to 

give, in a few brief chapters, an outline of the 

constitution and an appreciation of the power and 

beauty of the Communion of Saints. It is,—the 
Providence of God. 

Words fail me. All the old phrases and all the 
new are dull, impotent messengers for the sim- 
plest concept of the goodness and wisdom of God. 
I feel as did the man in the legend who en- 
deavored to hold the brilliant vast heavens in the 
grip of his hand. One can discover the Provi- 
dence of God in the history of nations and in the 
stories of our own lives. It is everywhere, like 
the atmosphere, flooding all earth; warm and 


beneficent, like early summer sunlight. A little 
184 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 185 


reflection will bring each one of us a deeper real- 
ization of it. 

And so, here, I merely set down a few 
thoughts, in the hope that they will move some 
who read to consider more frequently, and to 
place more trust in this influence of God in our 
lives. | 

Many on earth have forgotten, it often seems, 
that there is such an influence in their lives. And 
many, on the other hand, appear to know the 
workings of Providence better than God Himself; 
for according to their own light, they interpret 
this event or that to be under the immediate di- 
rection of God. It is truly a holy and consoling 
thought to believe that God disposes everything 
for our own good; and it is a worthy practice 
after either punishment or reward to say humbly: 
“We thank You for all, for You know better 
than we what is good for us.” But, to attribute 
to God some purpose or end which He, ordering 
events in His infinite wisdom, never intended, or 
to speak of this or that event in our lives presum- 
ing that we know why God has ordered or per- 


186 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


mitted it, as if we were the counsellors of God, is 
simply presumptuous. Such an attitude is 
against the whole spirit of the Catholic Church. 
It is not such that is meant when we speak of the 
Providence of God. 

Providence is one of God’s attributes by which 
He has not only “ordered all things in measure, 
and number and weight” (Wisd. xl: 21) with 
His infinite knowledge and power; but with His 
infinite wisdom and love “He reaches from end 
to end mightily and orders all things sweetly.” 
(Wisd. viii: 1.) The influential and brilliant, as 
well as the unfortunate, the weak and the poor, 
are equally dear to Him, and “the very hairs of 
our heads are all numbered.” (Matt. x: 30.) 
He does not forget to reward him who gives to 
any of these little ones a cup of cold water in the 
name of a disciple. (Matt. x: 42.) He takes 
care of the birds of the air and of the flowers of 
the fields . . ..But He cares above all for us. 
“You are of more value than many sparrows.” 
(Mario oT) 

“Providence is the will of God,” says St. John 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 187 


Damascene, “by which all things are ruled ac- 
cording to right reason.” It is universal, because, 
though God acts through secondary causes, yet 
all alike postulate divine concurrence and receive 
their powers of operation from Him. It is effi- 
cacious because all things minister to God’s final 
purpose which cannot be frustrated. It is finally 
“suavis,” that is, without violence, because it 
violates no natural law, but rather effects its pur- 
pose through these laws. (St. Thomas I. Q. Xxil, 
xxiii, ciii and Contra Gent. III, xciv.) 

As we said before, a true concept of Divine 
Providence includes not only God’s power, knowl- 
edge and wisdom, but also His unlimited love. 
God’s Providence, in the view that omits His 
love, is little short of a rigid determinism. Such 
is the fatalistic conception of the Mohammedans. 

An example will serve to differentiate the true 
Christian idea from the false. There are two 
gardeners who understand equally well the care 
of flowers. Both plant and transplant, trim and 
train, water and watch with the utmost science 
and care. But one is cold, without affection. To 


188 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


grow flowers is his business. And when his flow- 
ers are full grown he sells them for whatever 
price they will bring. But the other bends above 
his flowers and caresses them as though they 
were little children. He is with them at all hours, 
and his heart goes out to their helplessness and 
fragile beauty. When the time comes, he plucks 
them with tenderness. And he gathers them only 
because their day on earth is over and he may 
press them to his heart and bring them to live in 
the quiet of his home. The care and affection of 
the second gardener is like the real Providence 
of God. 

The leader of an army or the head of a great 
corporation must ordinarily satisfy himself with 
general orders. These general orders may often- 
times prove injurious to many of his great organ- 
ization, for it is impossible for him to anticipate 
every incident or have care for each individual’s 
wants. The more an executive is able to provide 
for every small exigency and attend to every 
detail, by just so much is he a greater executive. 
such a one is held up before men for his great 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 189 


wisdom and foresight. He who is Omniscient, 
Omnipresent, Omnipotent, and who loves us with 
an infinite love, has disposed every man’s lot and 
every incident in it, great and small, prosperous 
or adverse, and He leaves it to man’s free will to 
bring him to the determined end of His divine 
plan. A sparrow cannot fall to the ground with- 
out Him, and the very hairs of our heads are all 
numbered . . . Yet, we are not as slaves chained 
to the galley seat. We are soldiers and servants, 
but we are, also, His children. 

God directs, to the end provided by Him, all 
created beings of both the natural and preter- 
natural order. Men and angels both, the former 
in the natural plane, the latter in the preternat- 
ural plane, are governed by His Providence. Ac- 
cording to His Wisdom He uses natural, preter- 
natural, or supernatural means to accomplish His 
ends. Natural means, connatural to men, and 
preternatural means, connatural to angels, are, as 
we have previously said, not outside the order of 
created nature. In His supernatural Providence, 
God, employing supernatural means, orders man 


190 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


to the supernatural end determined by Him. In 
His natural Providence, God, employing only 
natural means, physical or moral, orders man and 
all natural things to the natural end determined 
by Him. 

When God uses natural means to direct man, 
and preternatural means to direct angels, it is said 
He is acting according to the decrees of His ordt- 
nary Providence. Then He is but following the 
natural or preternatural laws established by Him- 
self. Butif, in order to produce a physical effect, 
which He has decreed to produce since eternity, 
He uses either preternatural or supernatural 
means, it is said that He is acting according to the 
decrees of His extraordinary Providence. 

Under the decrees of God’s extraordinary 
Providence come miracles. Hence it is clear, a 
miracle is not an unforeseen event on His part. 
It was decreed by Him at the same time that He 
decreed the natural laws. It is an effect pro- 
duced by other laws, preternatural or supernat- 
ural, that are above the laws of nature as we 
know them in the first case, and above the laws of 
all created nature in the second. 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE OF GOD Ig! 


“Those effects,” says St. Thomas, “are rightly 
called miracles which are wrought by Divine 
Power apart from the order usually observed in 
nature.” A law of nature may be generally de- 
fined as “a uniform mode of acting which a nat- 
ural agent observes when under the same circum- 
stances.” Laws of nature are not, as many 
moderns have somehow come to believe, like the 
laws of accourt. They are merely statements by 
human beings of the way they have observed 
nature’s effects taking place constantly and in an 
unbroken repetition. We have always seen that 
out of a duck’s egg comes a duck, no matter 
whether the egg was hatched by a hen or in an 
incubator. Hence we say, out of the duck’s egg 
will come a duck. Yet, if God ordained it so, out 
of that egg might come an ostrich. That would 
be a miracle. A miracle may be supernatural in 
its manner of occurring and in its substance. For 
instance, the resurrection of a dead man is be- 
yond all power of created nature, both in sub- 
stance and manner. Yet a miracle may be nat- 
ural in substance, but supernatural in manner. 
Such is the instantaneous cure of a broken leg. 


192 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


Nature can cure a broken leg with man’s assist- 
ance in forty days. It cannot, with the combined 
skill of all the men on earth, cure a broken leg 
instantaneously. Both classes of miracles are 
under the extraordinary Providence of God. 

God is the author of nature and His work is 
so marvelously organized, down to the smallest 
detail, that it often happens that man, admiring 
such a wonderful accomplishment, so vast, so 1n- 
tricate, so well ordered and beautiful, has con- 
fused the work with its Author. This has been 
the origin not only of Idolatry but, especially in 
our time, of Naturalism and various forms of 
Materialism and denials of a Personal Deity. 
God, who knows the feebleness and littleness of 
man’s mind, sometimes performs a miracle to 
show that He is the Master. Then men throw 
up their hands in astonishment and exclaim: 
“Lo! Nature’s laws are broken.” Herein one 
finds a moral reason for miracles: “But because 
of the people who stand about have I said it; that 
they may believe that Thou hast sent Me... 
Lazarus, come forth . . . and presently he that ~ 


THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE OF GOD 193 


had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands 
with winding bands, and his face was bound with 
a napkin. And Jesus said to them: Loose him, 
and let him go.” (John xi: 42, 43.) . Here we 
have an example of both the extraordinary and 
ordinary Providence of God. The resurrection 
of Lazarus was the proof of His infinite power 
over nature. Then using only natural means He 
ordered them to loose him. 

The universal plan of Divine Providence em- 
braces not only (so to speak) His own plans but 
the plans of His enemies also, the plans of the 
devil and the plans of men who, endowed with 
free will, are able to act as they wish and oppose 
the will of God and break His commandments. 
So we may consider two different forces: those 
who follow Christ under the flag that proclaims: 
“Thy Will be done!” and those bad angels and 
men who follow Satan and aid him in his work of 
destruction, crying: “We will not have this Man 
to reign over us.” (Luke xix: 14.) 

God, in His ordinary Providence, employs 
secondary causes to carry out His will. Heis the 


194 TRUE SPIRITUALISM | 


Author of nature and its laws, and accordingly 
uses secondary causes except when, for some 
special reason, He desires to accomplish His end 
in a direct and startling manner. Hence, mir- 
acles are so few. Oftentimes, because we do not 
see the working of secondary causes, we attribute 
unusual occurrences to accident or miracle, when 
they really happen through the Providence of 
God working in its ordinary but hidden way. 
Therefore we must not forget that many as- 
tonishing things that appear to us to be “preter- 
natural,” because we do not understand the 
means to the end, are but natural phenomena pro- 
duced by natural laws established by God, the 
Author and Supreme Master of nature. 


EPILOGUE 


E are inclined to forget that the visible 
world about us as well as the invisible 
world is veiled, in the wisdom of God, behind un- 
fathomable mysteries. The earth and sky and sea 
hold in their undiscovered depths many secrets. 
Through our telescopes, we observe dimly the 
luminous bodies that dot the immeasurable space 
of the heavens; we speculate about those within 
the range of our vision; we gather, over centtries, 
some slight miscellaneous information; but be- 
yond what we number is the innumerable, beyond 
what we see is the unseen. Eternity shall be upon 
us before we catalogue the countless creations of 
mysterious and unexplorable space. So, with 
earth and sea. “Time will have passed away,” 
says Fabre, “before we know the truth of the 
enat.” 
In the beginning, God created heaven and 
195 


196 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


earth. When He had disposed these two realms as 
suited His infinite invention—and that disposi- 
tion, that endlessly intricate and varied arrange- 
ment of atoms, is beyond explanation—out of the 
slime of the earth, He created Man. Then, He 
breathed into him His life-giving spirit. Manbe- - 
came of this earth and yet above it. For God 
had given him a soul that linked him with the 
spirit world, a world that God had also, in His 
Wisdom, created. 

So man is at the heart of a strange, impenetra- 
ble complexity of life. His feet are on the earth 
as he is of it; but in him is the spirit, and beyond, 
the worlds preternatural and supernatural. Toil 
as he may, think as he may, he is, by his unillu- 
mined self, enmeshed in mystery. Even the 
future of his earthly life is hidden from him 
through the paternal providence of God. How 
can he presume to draw the impenetrable veil 
that hides from him the world of the dead? 

There is nothing fundamentally new in this 
book ; it constitutes an effort to put into contempo- 
rary terms, and to illumine in the light of the 


EPILOGUE 197 


present, simple truths that may be found in any 
theology. It has described the existence of the 
great spiritual profit-sharing corporation known 
to Catholics as the Communion of Saints; seeking 
to make clear how the infinite merits of Christ 
and, in a secondary way, the superabundant 
merits of the saints form, the treasury of this 
powerful and extensive corporation. It has 
sought to emphasize the privileges enjoyed by this 
spiritual body, of which the head is Christ and 
of which we are the members. It has indicated 
how we, in baptism, are elected to membership 
and thus receive the gift of grace that, by means 
of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and 
charity, together with prayer and good works, 
will bring us into everlasting life. It has ex- 
plained how, through the Sacraments, we may 
grow in grace, and how, when we have fallen 
from grace into mortal sin, we may be restored 
through the sacrament of Penance. It has sought 
to suggest the infinite value of the sacrifice of the 
Mass; and has described how we are helped to 
enter heaven by the sacrament of Extreme Unc- 


198 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


tion. All of this has been the purpose of the first 
section of this book, which is concerned mainly 
with the living members of this Communion. 
Briefly, it has sought to explain what is meant 
by the Catholic when he says: “I believe in the 
Communion of Saints.” 

The second section of the book aims to explain 
our relations with the dead, according to the 
doctrine of the Catholic Church. It tells of pur- 
gatory, where the souls of the dead endure a pain- 
ful purification before they are permitted to enter 
the immaculate presence of God. It indicates 
how the faithful may assist these poor souls by 
prayer, good works and indulgences and, above 
all, by the sacrifice of the Mass. Thus, it comes 
to ask if the souls in purgatory can communicate 
with us, and, if so, in what way. There follows 
an explanation of how the Saints observe us and 
intercede for us, and how they may appear to us 
in a visible manner when God, in whose hands 
they are, permits it. Thus, it evolves a description 
of how the angels (who are appointed by God 
to take care of us) may also appear to us when 


EPILOGUE 199 


God allows them to do so for some special purpose. 
And finally, it makes clear that even the devil may 
appear to men and take possession of them with 
the permission of God; and how, likewise by His 
special permission, the souls of the damned may 
visit men on earth. All this reveals the existencé 
of a world inhabited by spirits who, in one way 
or another, are in constant spiritual contact with 
us, and who can communicate with us. 

Catholics, therefore, are true “spiritualists,” 
believing as they do in God a Spirit; in angels, 
good and bad, true spirits; and in man’s spiritual 
soul that lives forever after the body is dead. 
The Catholic believes, furthermore, that these 
dead souls and the angels, good and bad, may 
appear to him on earth when God chooses. This, 
then, is true spiritualism. 

But Catholics do not believe that the souls of 
the dead communicate with the living on earth at 
the whim of men or at the summons of a medium. 
This is spiritism.* 


1See “Spiritism and Common Sense,” by C. M. de Heredia, 
P. J. Kenedy & Sons, New York. 


200 TRUE SPIRITUALISM 


The Catholic, seeing himself at the heart of a 
maze of mysteries and knowing the teaching of 
the true Church, holds it folly to seek to call to 
him the souls of the dead. He looks upon such 
Spiritism as a desecration, and moreover, as a 
superstitious practice in which no sensible man 
would indulge. When, in his yearning, he medi- 
tates on the dead, he turns to his Church and to 
her beautiful teaching of the Communion of 
Saints. There he finds courage and comfort. 
There he learns, as the saint of old, that faith, 
even if it were not the greatest of virtues, is still 
the greatest of consolations. 


FINIS 


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